Rick Boucher is taking over the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (renamed Telecommunications Subcommittee). This is great news. Boucher is an inspiration in the House. This is a critical committee for change.
It is good news. You missed it? Tsk..tsk! What DO you do all day?
I wouldn’t say that Progressives are on a roll, but perhaps we’re rising up from 8+ years of being road kill.
I wasn’t aware that Markey was an obstruction on the issues that you track, but that others in the full committee were. Have I misinterpreted this?
Speaking of current telecom issues, I’d be extremely interested to hear LL’s take on the current controversy surrounding the proposed delay of the DTV transition. Short version: ClearWire VP Gerry Salemme, who is currently on leave of absence while he serves as a technology adviser to the Obama transition team, has been lobbying Congress in support of delaying the DTV transition. The longer the DTV transition is delayed, the longer it will take Verizon to roll out its LTE network, which will operate in a portion of the spectrum currently used for analog TV. This gives ClearWire’s WiMax implementation a clear advantage over Verizon in the 4G marketplace. It certainly sounds to me like there may be a conflict of interest here.
I have a cell phone contract that’s got to go! According to consumer action cell phone contracts with company’s such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are becoming more and more expensive and there is nothing we can do about it. If you don’t have an expensive unlimited cell phone plan you may end up paying overage fees of up to 45 cents per minute. All the contract company’s just decided to up there text messages to more than 20 cents per message, we paid 10 cents in 2005 and this rise is unjustified in relation to inflation or their costs of delivering the message. So if you don’t like the new charges you can terminate the contract early but only if you are prepared to pay between $150-$200 in termination fees and that is only available for some contracts in their second year. The other very scary thing about contract phones is that after your contract time is up they just renew the contract without notifying you so if you don’t pay attention and cancel the contract in writing and with a notice period you’ll find yourself roped into another two years of exorbitant bills. I also discovered that these contract companies have been cheating immigrants with international calling cards.
So what can we do about it?
I suggest that if you have a cell phone contract, you should find out when it expires and wright a letter within the 30 day notice period terminating the contract. Then go out and get a prepaid wireless contract that will cost you a fraction of the price. I’ve bought a Tracfone and I’m saving money every month, I hear that Net 10 is also a good option.
I have a cell phone contract that’s got to go! According to consumer action cell phone contracts with company’s such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are becoming more and more expensive and there is nothing we can do about it. If you don’t have an expensive unlimited cell phone plan you may end up paying overage fees of up to 45 cents per minute. All the contract company’s just decided to up there text messages to more than 20 cents per message, we paid 10 cents in 2005 and this rise is unjustified in relation to inflation or their costs of delivering the message. So if you don’t like the new charges you can terminate the contract early but only if you are prepared to pay between $150-$200 in termination fees and that is only available for some contracts in their second year. The other very scary thing about contract phones is that after your contract time is up they just renew the contract without notifying you so if you don’t pay attention and cancel the contract in writing and with a notice period you’ll find yourself roped into another two years of exorbitant bills. I also discovered that these contract companies have been cheating immigrants with international calling cards.
So what can we do about it?
I suggest that if you have a cell phone contract, you should find out when it expires and wright a letter within the 30 day notice period terminating the contract. Then go out and get a prepaid wireless contract that will cost you a fraction of the price. I’ve bought a Tracfone and I’m saving money every month, I hear that Net 10 is also a good option.
I have a cell phone contract that’s got to go! According to consumer action cell phone contracts with company’s such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are becoming more and more expensive and there is nothing we can do about it. If you don’t have an expensive unlimited cell phone plan you may end up paying overage fees of up to 45 cents per minute. All the contract company’s just decided to up there text messages to more than 20 cents per message, we paid 10 cents in 2005 and this rise is unjustified in relation to inflation or their costs of delivering the message. So if you don’t like the new charges you can terminate the contract early but only if you are prepared to pay between $150-$200 in termination fees and that is only available for some contracts in their second year. The other very scary thing about contract phones is that after your contract time is up they just renew the contract without notifying you so if you don’t pay attention and cancel the contract in writing and with a notice period you’ll find yourself roped into another two years of exorbitant bills. I also discovered that these contract companies have been cheating immigrants with international calling cards.
So what can we do about it?
I suggest that if you have a cell phone contract, you should find out when it expires and wright a letter within the 30 day notice period terminating the contract. Then go out and get a prepaid wireless contract that will cost you a fraction of the price. I’ve bought a Tracfone and I’m saving money every month, I hear that Net 10 is also a good option.