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Federal Universal Service Fee- what a croc!

So it's only in New York and just now being rolled out. I wish I lived there, I'd love to pay 2 bucks a month to help a poor person get a phone that could make a difference in an emergency. But then I'm not a conservative who thinks people who can barely afford food after bills are just lazy slobs.
 
viivo said:
So it's only in New York and just now being rolled out. I wish I lived there, I'd love to pay 2 bucks a month to help a poor person get a phone that could make a difference in an emergency. But then I'm not a conservative who thinks people who can barely afford food after bills are just lazy slobs.
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Keep telling yourself that. When in reality they are given to drug dealers and others who abuse the system. Take a drive through the projects and see the luxury cars, plasma TVs in the free apartments inch thick steaks, name brand liquor, and the list goes on. They can afford these luxuries but need a free apartment, cable, food stamps, and cell phones. The entitlement system is completely abused and it gets worse with every generation. To you at arms length away think its a positive. Open your eyes a d see what's really going on. You have generations who think they don't have to work because they are entitled to everything. The system is going to break one day and it's going to be ugly when it does.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk
 
know people with some of these phones. these are the crappiest phones you will find.

the telco's are making bank on them. the phones are ancient tech, voice is almost free to serve. this is a scam to give some money to cell companies
 
boomhower said:
Keep telling yourself that. When in reality they are given to drug dealers and others who abuse the system. Take a drive through the projects and see the luxury cars, plasma TVs in the free apartments inch thick steaks, name brand liquor, and the list goes on. They can afford these luxuries but need a free apartment, cable, food stamps, and cell phones. The entitlement system is completely abused and it gets worse with every generation. To you at arms length away think its a positive. Open your eyes a d see what's really going on. You have generations who think they don't have to work because they are entitled to everything. The system is going to break one day and it's going to be ugly when it does.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk
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not sure if serious...
 
ricleo2 said:
Prepaid? Sounds good. Can you supply me a link to a prepaid smartphone?
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T-Mobile has not one, not two, but THREE monthly prepaid calling plans designed for smartphones.

100 minutes/unlimited text/5gb data (throttled after 5gb) for $30/month
unlimited minutes/unlimited texts/200mb data (throttled after 200mb) for $50/month
unlimited minutes/unlimited texts/2gb data (throttled after 2gb) for $60/month

Make that four plans...

unlimited minutes/unlimited texts/5gb data (throttled after 5gb) for $70/month

Boost Mobile (Sprint) and Virgin Mobile (Sprint) also have prepaid options that include smartphones.

AT&T, while not as friendly, will allow you to use "non-branded" smartphones with "unlimited" data on their PayAsYouGo plans, or alternatively you can add a smartphone data option as well.

Verizon also has prepaid options that include smartphones. Arguably, a better deal would be had using PagePlus (MVNO on Verizon) netting you 1200 minutes/3000 texts/200mb data for $29.95/month.

StraightTalk also has a smartphone for use at $50/month.

All of them are prepaid option, which include all "fees" in the cost of the service.
 
boomhower said:
Keep telling yourself that. When in reality they are given to drug dealers and others who abuse the system. Take a drive through the projects and see the luxury cars, plasma TVs in the free apartments inch thick steaks, name brand liquor, and the list goes on. They can afford these luxuries but need a free apartment, cable, food stamps, and cell phones. The entitlement system is completely abused and it gets worse with every generation. To you at arms length away think its a positive. Open your eyes a d see what's really going on. You have generations who think they don't have to work because they are entitled to everything. The system is going to break one day and it's going to be ugly when it does.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk
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I love when people take the 1% that abuse a system as proof that everybody abuses said system.
 
SunnyD said:
AT&T, while not as friendly, will allow you to use "non-branded" smartphones with "unlimited" data on their PayAsYouGo plans, or alternatively you can add a smartphone data option as well.
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I'm pretty sure the prepaid data that AT&T sells explicitly says "not for smartphones" so you would have to make sure they don't discover what kind of phone you have. Don't know what they do if they find out, or how often they do. Probably bump you to a proper smartphone plan?
 
obidamnkenobi said:
I'm pretty sure the prepaid data that AT&T sells explicitly says "not for smartphones" so you would have to make sure they don't discover what kind of phone you have. Don't know what they do if they find out, or how often they do. Probably bump you to a proper smartphone plan?
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At&t has one specifically for smartphones, but the amount of data on the highest tier is pretty low and costs $25.
 
Ok, enough with politics. I recognize the fee comes from the government so some discussion is relevant but, but this is not Politics and News so please keep the discussion on-topic.

If you want to discuss the fee, it's purpose, which politicians came up with it, etc, that's fine. But no more about rich vs. poor, liberals vs. conservatives and who is and isn't the 1%.

Moderator PM
 
obidamnkenobi said:
I'm pretty sure the prepaid data that AT&T sells explicitly says "not for smartphones" so you would have to make sure they don't discover what kind of phone you have. Don't know what they do if they find out, or how often they do. Probably bump you to a proper smartphone plan?
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What you may be talking about is the 'unlimited' plan for GoPhone, which includes unlimited everything (talk/text/"web") for $50/month, but require a data add-on package (see below for an example) if you are using a smartphone. However, if you don't use AT&T branded phone, AT&T will never know what kind of phone you are using, and therefore this plan truly becomes an unlimited everything. There is a thread at Howardforums (which is currently down, unfortunately) dedicated specifically to track which smartphone will work with this plan without having to add the data add-on package. There's been no report of people who 'got caught' yet afaik, but the worse thing that could happen is just AT&T forcing them to add a data package.

On the other hand, the pay-to-go plan (10c/min-20c/txt-1c/kB) has texting and data add-on packages that you can purchase with your balance, and these are going to make the rates much better (e.g. unlimited text for $20/month, 500 MB for $25/month). With this pay-to-go plan, you can choose whichever texting and/or data add-ons that suit your needs, use whatever GSM phone you want (dumb or smart, as long as it's a quadband or have a US band, it will work). You don't even have data tethering restriction, since you're paying for data by the block already.

Anyway, I seriously doubt the OP are interested in a solution though. He hasn't been back, and looking back at the original post it's possible he just really wanted to rant P&N style instead of finding a solution for his problem. But I already typed everything up so there you go. Hopefully it will help somebody 🙂
 
ricleo2 said:
Appreciate the response. But, I'm not interested in "cheating" a phone company with using anything I haven't rightly paid for.
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Well... you're certainly within your right to think that way :\

I do have a question: can I just buy a used or new smartphone and call up any provider and get it to work?
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In general, prepaid options are available for all the major carriers, not to mention their mvno (resellers). However, in my post I was definitely not discussing all providers, and in fact I specifically mentioned that I was talking about AT&T and its prepaid plan 'GoPhone'. Check SunnyD's excellent post a few posts back to look at the other options.
 
ricleo2 said:
Prepaid? Sounds good. Can you supply me a link to a prepaid smartphone?
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Wait, so now the poor people who cannot afford to eat are entitled to smart phones?


So I posted a big bold message about three posts up stating specifically that we were not going to discuss politics - specifically rich vs. poor - in this thread. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't happen to see it or maybe I wasn't clear enough.

The topic is the fee and you can talk all around the fee but we aren't going to discuss politics like this is "Occupy Anandtech". If you want to discuss whether the poor should have cell phones, please take it to "politics and news".

If you think that I'm cutting this issue too close - that it's inherently a political issue and there is no discussion without politics, then PM me and convince me and I'll move it to P&N. Otherwise, my request is that we stick to the facts of the fee and not discuss the politics of it.

Moderator PM
 
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Looking at my bill, it seems TN doesn't have that fee. 🙂 Must be an urban thing.
 
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Previous company I worked for had about $6000 a month worth of T1 lines that they paid that bullshit fee on. It was basically like paying for another T1 line. I've been riled up about it for years.
 
ricleo2 said:
Appreciate the response. But, I'm not interested in "cheating" a phone company with using anything I haven't rightly paid for. I do have a question: can I just buy a used or new smartphone and call up any provider and get it to work?
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Lol...
The phone companies are cheating you by the minute, by the MB, and by the texts.
Once you go prepaid, you'll find this out first hand.
 
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