Cell Phone Empowerment Act of 2007

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G

George P Burdell

Lifer
Aug 25, 2004
11,166
1
81
The Cell Phone Empowerment Act of 2007 would improve the lives of cellphone users by attacking a smorgasbord of the industry's most eggregious practices:

# Early Termination Fees: FCC regulations would require companies to prorate ETFs, with the penalty for escaping a 2-year contract cut in half at the end of the first year.

# Service Maps: Cellphone companies would be required to provide detailed maps showing call quality down to the street level. The maps would be augmented by data on dropped calls and coverage gaps collected and publicized by the FCC.

# Fee Disclosure: Overage charges would be displayed separately from taxes, and companies would be prohibited from levying any fees, apart from the basic service charge, not expressly authorized by federal, state, or local regulation.

# Contract Disclosure: Depriving us of a source of many posts, companies would be prohibited from extending contracts without "point-of-sale notification," and customers would have 30 days to cancel any contract, new or extended. Any contract changes would need to be sent to consumers in writing, and could not take affect for 30 days.

# Unlocked Phones: The bill would give the FCC a homework assignment: a single-spaced report to Congress on the harmful and anti-competitive practice of locking handsets.

# Military Exemptions: Companies would be required to release military members awaiting deployment from their contracts.
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Text

Here's what's wrong with your current cellphone bill
 
R

Reckoner

Lifer
Jun 11, 2004
10,851
1
81
It'd be great if something like that passed. Sure, it'd mean more expensive phones, but I'd take it. Too bad there's no way it'll pass.
 
GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,776
31
81
The lobbyists will never allow it.

Didn't you hear the news? Nobody in Washington cares about the middle class.
 
M

MrBond

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2000
9,911
0
76
Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
Originally posted by: Exterous
Can we realistically expect service maps detailed to street level?
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Sprint, Tmobile, or one of them already produces this
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Verizon offers street-level coverage maps, they'll say what network you'll be on, but they don't say how strong it will be.

I saw this the other day - it will probably never pass though.
 
D

Dunbar

Platinum Member
Feb 19, 2001
2,041
0
0
As far as regulation goes, like wirless number portability, this would benefit most consumers (but probably lead to higher prices). But this strikes me as political pandering not unlike the gasoline "price gouging" laws that always get floated when gas prices get high.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,599
19
81
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
The lobbyists will never allow it.

Didn't you hear the news? Nobody in Washington cares about the middle class.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this is sarcastic or not, but I hope it is.

The parts about early termination fees and service maps do sound nice though. It's a shame that this has about as much chance as passing as a lobbyist reform bill would.


Originally posted by: Dunbar
As far as regulation goes, like wirless number portability, this would benefit most consumers (but probably lead to higher prices). But this strikes me as political pandering not unlike the gasoline "price gouging" laws that always get floated when gas prices get high.
Click to expand...
That stuff amuses me. Someone at the warehouse I worked at was complaining about gas prices. His solution: the government should set the price of gas.
That, of course, would be rather unsettlingly similar to communism. But explaining such economic concepts to this guy would have been a lost cause, so I didn't bother saying anything.
 
D

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,894
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
# Early Termination Fees: FCC regulations would require companies to prorate ETFs, with the penalty for escaping a 2-year contract cut in half at the end of the first year.

# Fee Disclosure: Overage charges would be displayed separately from taxes, and companies would be prohibited from levying any fees, apart from the basic service charge, not expressly authorized by federal, state, or local regulation.

# Contract Disclosure: Depriving us of a source of many posts, companies would be prohibited from extending contracts without "point-of-sale notification," and customers would have 30 days to cancel any contract, new or extended. Any contract changes would need to be sent to consumers in writing, and could not take affect for 30 days.
===================================================

These are all intertwined and the biggest abuses by all corporations, not just the cell carriers.

It's the holy grail of free profits so I doubt that it will get out of committee.

If something like this managed to get through I would maybe have some hope for the U.S. surviving the decimation by the corporations of this country.
 
E

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
5,481
0
0
Forcing handsets to be unlocked would definitely raise their prices. Since the carriers in the USA use different technologies (not all standard GSM like in other countries) it wouldn't help a user going from Verizon to AT&T, for example.

Most of the companies already let military users out of their contracts I think (or maybe I'm thinking of apartments, which are definitely required by Texas law to let military people out?). But more useful for them (imo) would be a suspension of their current contract without charge, so that when they return stateside they would be able to keep their number, plan and phone. Or perhaps, even better, would be to allow them to temporarily forward to some other U.S. number for a nominal fee (VoIP?)
 
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