UCAN

Effective June 1st, T-Mobile's text message rates will increase from $0.10 to $0.15 per message. Consumer advocacy groups like UCAN maintain that such changes constitute a materially adverse affect to a wireless customer's contract, thereby allowing the customer to terminate his/her contract without penalty as provided by standard contract law and the cell phone company's terms and conditions (except Cingular). T-Mobile has acknowledged this publicly. As reported by www.consumerist.org, T-Mobile spokesman Peter Dobrow told RCR Wireless News that, " Customers may terminate their contract without incurring an ETF soon after receiving their notification of the pricing change." Read more.

Update 6-7-2007: this bill was voted down 17-20 on the Senate Floor.

Can the "Cell Phone Subscriber Consumer Protection Bill," recently passed 5-3 in the California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, finally provide basic cell phone consumer protections?

At the very least, it's clear that the California Legislature is the only venue to obtain these protections. Indeed, the California Public Utilities Commission(CPUC) foolishly claimed last August that their is sufficient competition to justify massive deregulation of the telecommunications industry in California. With cell phone complaints topping the list of consumer complaints in 2006 to organizations like the Better Business Bureau and UCAN, this purported "competition" has failed to improve quality of service. UCAN has pushed basic, economically rational consumer protections on cell phone service for years, and took part in the process of crafting the "Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights" which was unfortunately revoked by the Schwarzenegger CPUC in 2005.

A new opportunity and incarnation of the "Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights" is SB 831, the "Cell Phone Subscriber Consumer Protection Bill."

"Cell phone companies are merging, competition is decreasing, customer service is deteriorating, and yet California cell phone subscribers have little or no protection against industry abuses," said State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D- Long Beach). "SB 831 would establish a minimum standard of protections that every cell phone subscriber needs and deserves."

Indeed. Here's the short list of consumer protections in SB 831. Hopefully public outcry can make this bill a reality.
READ MORE

Effective March 15, 2007, Verizon Wireless increased its $0.40 administrative charge to $0.70 per line. Due to a clause in the Verizon Customer Agreement, customers may be able to use the fee increase to terminate their service and avoid the usual $175 cancellation fee. Read more

The witty and sometimes informational consumer blog, Consumerist.com, recently posted a story entitled "7 Confessions of a Cingular Sales Rep." The article is playful, claiming that another sales rep has come forward to "cleanse themselves in the healing waters of the Consumerist." But in claiming that the article offers "tips for the readers," the Consumersist does a disservice to cell phone consumers. The Cingular rep's comments are largely promotional, not confessional. The so-called "tips" are at best questionable and at worst downright absurd. In the future, the Consumerist should do some fact checking before posting such dubious information. Read the entire review here.