After Verizon dropped an estimated 10,000 D.C.-area 911 calls during a January snowstorm, the FCC asked the company to find out what went on. The answer was that some key equipment malfunctioned, and the company mysteriously decided not to inform public officials of the issue. [More]
cell phones
Google's Mobile Search Lets You Find Businesses That Are Open Right Now
By 2.25.11
If it’s 4 a.m., you’ve been out all night and are in need of a burrito, Google is thinking of you. The search dynamo has added some heft to its smartphone search functionality, letting you sort businesses by whether they’re currently open, as well as distance distance and user rating levels. [More]
New York Drivers Caught Using Phone While Driving Will Be Punished With Points
By 2.18.11
Adding some teeth and uniformity to a law against cell phone use while driving, the state of New York will tack two points onto the driving records of offenders in addition to making them pay a $100 fee. Previously, those who texted while driving were stuck with the points and fee, while drive-and-talkers got off with just a fee. [More]
Cell Phone Tax Rates Are Highest Ever
By 2.16.11
Cell phones are crafty little tax machines for local, state and federal governments, now raking in their largest amount of taxes ever and posting sizable increases each year. [More]
Use iPod Touch As A Phone To Save On Bills
By 1.27.11
The iPod Touch can be more than the oft-ignored stepbrother of the iPhone – with the right hacking touch, it can be a replacement for its much loved sibling. [More]
Purse-Dial On The Other Side Of The World, Pay Verizon $1,800
By 1.10.11
Travel tip: If you haven’t arranged for international phone service while traveling abroad, take the battery out of your phone so you can’t accidentally turn it on and dial. [More]
Smuggled Phones Help Cons Play FarmVille From Behind Bars
By 1.3.11
Just because you’re locked up, you shouldn’t have to miss out on texting buddies, logging status updates and playing FarmVille. Thanks to smuggling channels and intense demand, cell phones have become as much a part of the prison experience as lunchtime brawls and toothbrush shanks. [More]
Are There Advantages Of Switching To A Prepaid Cell Phone?
By 12.28.10
Prepaid cell phones aren’t only for drug dealers on the HBO show The Wire. Those who rarely talk or text and would rather not be tied to an electronic leash may want to look into prepaid plans. They could be cheaper than monthly plans, and could work for those who are on a tight budget. [More]
Verizon Tells Us We Can't Return Phone Because We Bought It On A Promotion That's Over
By 12.27.10
Andrea and her husband took advantage of a Verizon buy-one-get-one-free promotion, taking comfort that if either didn’t like their new devices, they could return them thanks to Verizon’s 30-day guarantee. But the company has refused to let her husband exchange his device because the BOGO promotion had ended. [More]
AT&T Says It Will Erase $16K Bill It Sent To Deployed Soldier
By 12.23.10
Soldiers stationed abroad like to receive mail from home. Little notes can reconnect them with the society they’ve left behind and boost morale. That is, unless the letter is a $16,000 cell phone bill. [More]
Verizon Mistakenly Charges Me $6K, Promises Refund, Isn't Delivering
By 12.3.10
When Scott upgraded to a smartphone, Verizon forgot to initiate his new data plan, so he was soaked with a $6,000 bill under his antiquated former plan. Since Scott is signed up for auto-billing, his credit card was charged before he could argue. He says Verizon admitted its error and agreed to a refund, but it’s been 30 days and Scott is still waiting. [More]
Government May Use Tech To Stop Cell Phone Use In Cars
By 12.1.10
People are so insistent on driving while using their cell phones that only death in a car accident will stop them from doing so. Spurred by the prevalence of fatal accidents caused by distracted drivers — 5,500 last year — the government is mulling over the concept of using technology to force drivers to put down their phones. [More]
My Sprint Saga: Five Phones And Four Funerals
By 11.22.10
Reader O says he’s been a Sprint customer since 2004, and things went smoothly until the beginning of last year, in which some sort of black cloud cell phone satellite has hovered over him, zapping him with terrible luck that’s forced him to pour 40s on the street for four fallen phone homeys. [More]
Verizon Pays FCC $25 Million, Credits Customers With $52.8 Million For False Data Charges
By 10.29.10
Despite earlier reports that Verizon would refund $90 million to customers it overcharged for data use on cell phones, the cell phone company revealed it’s paying $25 million in fines to the Federal Communications Commission and crediting only $52.8 million to customers. [More]
Woman Uses Cell Phone In 1928?
By 10.28.10
In what’s either evidence of time travel, an impossibly elaborate hoax or just a clip of an insane woman talking to a shoehorn, an independent filmmaker has sifted through the DVD special features of Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 movie The Circus to find footage of what appears to be a woman talking on a cell phone. [More]
Tag-Team Unhelpfulness From Best Buy And Virgin Keeps My Cell Phone Dead
By 10.14.10
Andrew bought a Samsung Intercept phone from Best Buy and hoped to activate it on his active Virgin Mobile account. But after he bought the phone, he discovered it wouldn’t be possible to activate it until later this month. Now he’s stuck without phone service and doesn’t know whom to blame. [More]
FCC Doesn't Want You Spending Too Much On Your Mobile Plan
By 10.13.10
Last week, we asked you what annoyed you most about your mobile phone plan, and most of you picked “cost.” Now comes news that the Federal Communications Commission is going to review new proposals intended to keep you from spending more on your phone bill than you’d planned. [More]
What Annoys You Most About Your Mobile Phone?
By 10.5.10
From AT&T to Zoom Mobile, we here at Consumerist have fielded complaints from every domestic mobile carrier we can think of. Additionally, just about every company has been labeled “the worst” by scores of readers. But today, instead of picking on any one carrier, we want to get at the bigger issue of what’s bothering cellphone users in general. [More]
