A California judge has issued a tentative ruling against Sprint regarding early termination fees. Although Sprint has two weeks to respond before the judge issues a final ruling, if the ruling stands then Sprint will have to pay $73 million in refunds to former customers. That Verizon settlement for $21 million earlier this month must be looking pretty sweet to Sprint’s investors right about now.
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FCC Approves Sirius-XM Merger
By 7.26.08
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of Sirius-XM. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new anti-consumer practices. To seek out new revenue streams and crowd out new competitors. To boldly safeguard the dangerous monopoly granted last night by the FCC.
AT&T Will Roll Out Tiered Internet Access In October
By 7.22.08
“When AT&T provides broadband service by speed, it will do so in discrete, non-overlapping tiers,” Quinn said in written testimony. “We will strive to provide service within the speed tier purchased by the customer and, if we find that we are not providing service within the ordered speed tier, AT&T will take action either to bring the customer’s service within the ordered tier or give the customer an option to move to a different tier.”
FCC Chairman Says Comcast "Violated Our Principles" By Arbitrarily Blocking Internet Traffic
By 7.11.08
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the Associated Press yesterday that Comcast had “violated our principles” when it came to managing their network. He accused Comcast of arbitrarily blocking internet traffic and failing to disclose to consumers that it was doing so.
FCC To Reevaluate "Embedded Advertising" On Television
By 6.30.08
The FCC has announced that they will be examining the practice of “embedded advertising” on television and will decide on what additional disclosure messages should be provided to protect the audience. This differs from simple product placement in that embedded advertising interweaves products into plot lines and dialogue, essentially, transforming a normal scene into an advertisement. The FCC contends that additional disclosure messages are necessary to protect viewers who may not be aware that advertisers are paying to have their products written into the plots of TV shows. Details, inside…
The FCC Says Former Customers Are Off Limits To Verizon
By 6.25.08
Verizon, who had been using proprietary data to seduce former customers into returning, received a stern message from the FCC to discontinue such practices, according to the Washington Post. Local cable companies complained that Verizon would offer $200 American Express gift cards to keep their customers and send them letters via express mail which promised steep discounts. A majority of members from the FCC said that using this information to contact ex-customers is illegal and infringes on consumers’ privacy. Details, inside…
In Early Termination Fee Hearing, FCC Chief Regurgitates Wireless Industry Proposals
By 6.12.08
The FCC held hearings today to discuss early termination fees (ETF) for wireless carriers, the ~$175 charged if a customer exits contract before the contract is up. FCC Chairman Kevin “Golden Child” Martin’s proposals largely mirrored those offered by the carriers themselves last month. Here’s what he said today:
Cable: The Worst Deal Of The Decade
By 5.24.08
The price of everything in the telecom world has fallen over the past decade, except for cable. Cable is now 77% more expensive than it was ten years ago, an increase that dwarfs the rate of inflation and makes telecom executives salivate. The Times looks with pity on all of us who splay our wallets wide for the industry, and asks if there’s any salvation other than à la carte pricing.
To Avoid Billions In Lawsuits, Cellphone Companies Propose Tepid Early Termination Fee Reform
By 5.22.08
Big Box Retailers Fight Back Against FCC's Recent Fines
By 5.20.08
Best Buy, Circuit City, and Sears are all contesting the FCC’s recent fines against them for not properly following analog transition rules in their stores, reports Ars Technica. Last week, Best Buy submitted a 41-page response (PDF) that claimed among other things that the FCC has no authority to fine them.
Azureus: Other ISPs May Also Be Throttling BitTorrent
By 4.22.08
A few months ago Azureus petitioned the FCC, which led to a FCC hearing in February. One of the complaints from the commission was that there is little data available on the scope of BitTorrent throttling, a gap Azureus now tries to fill by collecting data on the prevalence of TCP-resets among ISPs worldwide.
Cablevision Claims They Are Not Lying Liars, But Mysteries Remain
By 4.20.08
Cablevision responded to our post chastising their attempt to force customer to upgrade to digital service by pointing to an unrelated FCC mandate. Cablevision admits that there is no connection between their unilateral business decision to cut channels and the FCC-mandated transition to digital television, but their statement leaves several questions unanswered. Read Cablevision’s statement and our response, after the jump.
Cablevision Blatantly Lies To Subscribers As The FCC Twiddles Its Thumbs
By 4.19.08
Update: Cablevision responds.
Sprint's "Nucking Futs" "Jessica" Fired
By 4.16.08
benpopken: How did the company track down which “Jessica” it was?
Sprint To Customer: "Are You Nucking Futs?"
By 4.12.08
Reader Pam asked Jessica if she could port her landline to her mobile account, prompting the Sprint CSR to respond: “No, are you nucking futz?” Pam wasn’t expecting an abusive chat when she visited Sprint’s website to research a potential contract extension, but Jessica unexpectedly appeared with advice that wasn’t just rude, but also wrong.
Sears, Best Buy, Wal-Mart And Others Fined For Not Warning Consumers About Analog Obsolescence
By 4.10.08
The FCC handed out a whole basketful of fines to electronics retailers today: $1.1 million for Sears and Kmart; $992,000 for Wal-Mart; $712,000 for Circuit City; and amounts between $168,000-384,000 for Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, and Fry’s Electronics. What made Christmas come so early? They were all failing to warn consumers that analog-only TVs and tuners will stop working on their own when the digital switchover comes next year.
Verizon, Not Google Is The Big Wireless Spectrum Winner
By 3.21.08
Choke back the tears, kids—Verizon, not Google won the majority of the wireless spectrum actioned off by the FCC.
Watch Out For Cramming On Your Phone Bill
By 3.20.08
Josh discovered a mysterious $13 fee on his parents’ phone bill, and as he tracked down the source of the bogus charge, he learned a lot about cramming. The FCC describes it as “the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading, or deceptive charges on your telephone bill” by third party companies, who bank on you being too confused/distracted/annoyed by your hard-to-read bill to notice.
