Senators take on cell phone contract fees
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A new bill in Congress would give cell phone subscribers greater freedom to leave their contracts.
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but winds up costing consumers tens of millions of dollars a year -- is being scaled back by two of the nation&#39;s biggest cell phone carriers.
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By Jim Wyss, The Miami Herald  Mar. 4--One of the most well-funded battles of the last legislative session is heating up again as the cable industry and telephone companies face off over the right to provide cable TV service.
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Denver-based Qwest Communications and Verizon Communications of New York are going to court over a freeze placed on rates that the companies can charge competitors.
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Millions of customers may face higher phone bills as a result of an FCC vote Wednesday to phase out discounts that major regional phone companies must give rivals that rent space on the big companies' lines. -The Washington Post
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Are some of our senators taking advantage of their inside scoop?
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U.S. senators questioned Thursday whether members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to enforce merger conditions that AT&T Inc. agreed to in its December acquisition of BellSouth Corp.
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WASHINGTON - The Senate, in an unusual Sunday session, saw its effort to pass a sweeping corporate tax bill grind to a halt in the face of delaying tactics by a Louisiana senator upset that the measure did not include pay support for members of the Reserves and National Guard.    By a 66-14 vote, lawmakers did agree to limit debate on the tax bill, which provides $136 billion in new tax breaks for businesses and $10.1 billion separately to buy out tobacco farmers' government quotas...
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In a setback for the White House, the Senate will not vote this month on whether to give legal protection to the phone carriers that helped with the N.S.A. eavesdropping program.
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WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission may consider limiting fees that phone and cable companies charge subscribers who cancel service before contracts expire.
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The Senate is expected to decide this week whether to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans.
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The Motley Fool - It's been four months to the day since I last wrote on the subject of the cell phone industry's plan to publish your unlisted cell phone number for all the world to see -- and charge you for the privilege. Fortunately, the U.S. Senate has not been sitting on its hands all this while. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill on the proposed "E411" cell phone directory, sending it on to the full Senate for a floor vote.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. senators questioned Thursday whether members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to enforce merger conditions that AT&T Inc. agreed to in its December acquisition of BellSouth Corp. Democratic members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned why FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate issued a joint statement while approving the merger saying the FCC couldn't broadly enforce some of AT&T's concessions. "What I find difficult to understand is that ... you said that you do not intend to stand by the deal that was reached," said Senator Daniel Inouye, the committee chairman and a Hawaii Democrat. Martin and Tate, both Republicans, had protested a net neutrality condition, preventing AT&T from giving priority transmission speeds to its own or its partners' Web content for at least two years. The net neutrality conditions "very well may cause greater problems than the speculative problems they seek to address," Martin and Tate said in the statement Dec. 29. Martin on Thursday said he intends to hold AT&T to the net neutrality agreement, but he doesn't plan to impose those standards on other broadband carriers. "Since [AT&T] volunteered to do that, we would enforce that," he said. "That does not mean we were changing our policy." Martin also suggested another part of the agreement setting out wholesale rates for some data services may be unenforceable. "What is your legal authority as chairman ... to not enforce something you just did?" asked Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat. AT&T agreed to lower the wholesale special access prices for DS1, DS3, and Ethernet services available to some regional telecom carriers and large businesses, but not to large competitors. But the FCC's policy in the past has been that wholesale discounts should apply to all customers, Martin said. "That tariff actually has some components that I believe are illegal under the commission precedent," Martin said. "They can file [the proposed discount], but I'm not committing to approving something that would be in violation of our precedent. We don't allow for that kind of discrimination." But Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat who pushed for conditions on the AT&T merger, noted that the FCC adopted the AT&T merger conditions on a 4-0 vote. "It's hard for me to understand why we can't implement something we adopted unanimously," he said. Senators also urged the FCC to work on ways to get broadband service to rural, inner city and poor areas. The FCC on Wednesday issued a report saying the number of high-speed lines in the U.S. increased by 26 percent during the first half of 2006, from 51.2 million to 64.6 million lines in service. The number of high-speed lines grew by 21 percent in the second half of 2005. Senators also pointed to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's latest study saying the U.S. ranks 12th in broadband adoption rate among industrialized nations. Commissioner Michael Copps called on Congress and the FCC to develop a national broadband strategy. He called the U.S. broadband adoption rates "woeful." "I am really worried that we can go into the 21st century and have a bigger digital divide in this country ... than we had back in the days of plain, old telephone service in the 20th century," he said. "This just isn't feel-good liberal theory -- we're talking about the competitiveness of the United States of America."
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Cell phone customers are increasingly complaining--and suing--over mysterious, hard-to-cancel charges on their monthly bills.
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Blog: AT&T's deal to sell the iPhone drew criticism from Democrats, and a defense from Republicans. The arrangement might led to an open access requirement for a 700 MHz spectrum auction next year.
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The nation's two largest wireless carriers amended their policies on cellphone contracts before a hearing held yesterday by lawmakers interested in legislating consumer-friendly practices.
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Voice over IP calls are getting cheaper - Vonage and AT&amp;T both announced lower monthly charges late last week. AT&amp;T said it would reduce its monthly charge by five dollars to $30 a month for unlimited local and long distance calls in Canada and the US.