I sat down this month and really looked over my VerizonWireless bill. It has climbed steadily since we subscribed many years ago. We have a family plan with two phones. Basic Service is $59.99 but our bill is OVER $100.
There is the $34.07 Surcharges and Fees, Verizon Wireless Surcharges – “Includes charges to recover or help defray costs of taxes and of governmental charges and fees imposed on us by the government. Other Charges and Credits – includes charges for products and services, and credits owing.”
There is the $6.11 government surcharge and tax.
There is the “Voice” charge of $7.45 “The “Voice” section of your bill Includes charges for voice calls, including calls that exceed your Plan’s minute allowances, 411 Search, Long Distance and other calls.” They claimed seven minutes of share time used and 77 minutes total out of our 400 minutes authorized but we still have an inadequately explained $7.45 minute charge. It doesn’t appear we did anything to deserve this, ah except maybe 411 charges. Yes that’s it.. We don’t even use 100 minutes of a 400 minute allowance during the month. It’s not like we are a challengingly abusive customer that taxes the system! We are taxed to death like everyone else earning much less than $250K per year. Excuse me politicians are you reading this? Hello! But I digress.
There is a data charge of .40 cents but we use no data.
Had we used text messages each one would have cost .20 cents each sent and received. We don’t text.
There is the State of Maryland 911 surcharge of 25 cents and the Calvert County surcharge of 75 cents. Oh and this will really get you thinking. Because cellular service in and around my home has always been poor any calls that do connect go to towers across the Chesapeake Bay and we are connected with 911 centers outside of our area who must transfer our calls to Calvert County 911. Needless to say, we have learned not to count on our telephones for 911 service.
So the real price of a two cellular family plan is $109 and some cents. It may be time to re-evaluate our service. Have you looked at your cellular bill recently? What are the mystery fees and surcharges like with your cellular carrier?
Wireless providers, such as Clearwire Corp., have successfully argued they should be able to prevent customers from using some bandwidth-hogging Internet services, like file-sharing, because their wireless networks have capacity issues.
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WASHINGTON (AP) – Consumer confidence fell to an all-time low as worries about jobs, energy bills and home foreclosures darkened people’s feelings about the country’s economic health and their own financial well-being.
According to the RBC Cash Index, confidence tumbled to a mark of 56.3 in early January.
Click “read more” and visit BreitBart.com for the rest of the story.
A family in Framingham, Massachusetts says that after their father died late last month, Sprint refused to allow them to cancel his cell phone, and insisted that they had to continue to pay for the phone plan until the contract was over in September, 2008.
Click read more below to see the entire story at awfulmarketing.com
The United States …found Buffalo to infringe the ’069 patent and enjoined the importation and sale of Buffalo’s IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g compliant products. This could be catastrophic for the Wi-Fi industry and not just for Buffalo! Click read more to visit their site and read the details. Our thanks to Evert Bopp’s Wireless News for alerting us to this story. Evert’s site is listed in the News section of our Blogroll.
Two way radios can add thousands of dollars to your bottom line. Selecting the proper walkie-talkie system is crucial. There are four basic elements to consider in choosing the right 2-way radios: VHF vs UHF, Power, # of Channels, and Durability. Here’s how to choose the right two-way radios for you and your business. (Click read more below to read the article referred to.)
(PopWireless: This is article is written only with a partial understanding of the truth. This article is vague enough to convince us the writer really has not read the FRS FCC Rules. The only thing the writer got right was that many of the bubble-pack toys made today are toys when compared to real commercial quality radios. That advice is excellent. Toys do not hold up in business environments. Where the article flops is in licensing information. It doesn’t even begin to deal with the confusion created by the Federal Communications Commission when they unilaterally approved the infamous twenty-two channel bubble pack.
The FCC fully expected and supports businesses using the Family Radio Service. There is no license required to use Family Radio Service radios. That has been in OUR FAQ since day one. There is only ONE FRS radio left on the market that we know of (There may be one other type sold with a life vest. Read our blog) and that is the ICOM model discussed in this blog in another article. All of the other so-called “FRS” radios out there are the twenty-two channel hybrid radios or bubble-pack radios. These radios, according to the FCC website are technically GMRS radios that have FRS capability and that capability is FRS channels eight through fourteen.
Manufacturers have design the majority of these twenty-two channel toys so that the the channels formerly known in FRS radios as channels one through seven are at GMRS power levels. FRS was carved out of the General Mobile Radio Service. FRS one through seven were always portable and small-base station frequencies in the GMRS. FRS 8-14 are channels in-between the eight GMRS repeater input frequencies. The GMRS rules allow up to five watts ERP (Effective Radiated Power) on what have always been known as the GMRS interstitials. The only true license-free channels in most twenty-two channel bubble-pack radios are the last seven FRS channels. Seven out of twenty two. Seven out of twenty two require a GMRS license and those are considered GMRS channels not FRS channels.
We do agree that business is better served using real two-way radios. Radios that are built tough and built for long service.)
Gary Forsee steps down as CEO of Sprint Nextel
(Click read more below to read the original story.)
(Popwireless: How come? The behavior of of the cellular companies never ceases to amaze. The cellular market is SATURATED. Everyboby who has a cellular telephone has a cellular telephone. The vast numbers, huge growth, and big profits are PAST PERFORMANCE. Stock holders should have seen this down turn coming. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Harassing and replacing CEO’s or pushing sales people to extremes will NOT force a market change. The cellular market should now focus on keeping the customers they already have and in wooing customers from competitors with that service. Sprint is one of those companies that has out sourced customer service off shore to GREAT DETRIMENT. The stock holders should be asking the Board of Directors WHY in no uncertain terms. A company that has PIONEERED cellular as they have has no business being in the business of yanking customer’s chains. This move just tells us that SPRINT has just not seen the light. SPRINT and national retailers acting as agents for SPRINT think that sales today should be the same as two and three years ago – same gains same profits. That rate of growth is simply over. The paradigms are shifting and no one is noticing.
One major shift that we see coming is a consumer shift away from the big store to the neighborhood cellular store. The smaller cellular vendors have the time, inclination, and the motivation to serve their cellular customer. From a truth-in-disclosure perspective I sell cellular telephones and I frankly believe SPRI NT is one-cool company. The company is feeling what every retailer in America that sells cellular is feeling – a loss of cellular business. I do however believe and have always believed that customer are often better served by the ombudsman-like qualities of the local vendor as opposed to the carrier’s vendor.
It has been extraordinarily hard for local vendors to survive when the big vendors build company stores a few miles away. We continue to be amazed though at the number of customers to return based entirely on the local guy’s ability to deliver service and results. The consumer has some serious choices to make when they elect to get a cellular upgrade. )
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. — LG Electronics’ digital-to-analog DTV converter box was officially certified for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) converter box program, the company said today. (Click read more below to read the original article.)
(PopWireless: There is also some interesting background on the converter reimbursement program as well as some idea of where prices may go. TWICE.COM is in the PopularWireless.com blog roll because I believe as the editor that they are an excellent source for the latest industry news. It is not everyday I recommend that reader subscribe to yet-another-mailing list but I highly recommend being on the list at TWICE.COM.)
A rather tepid forecast for holiday season electronics retailers. The credit crunch is taking its toll on retail sales which are expected to have far fewer gains this year. Excellent article at TWICE. If you are not already receiving their email alerts on these items it is a must read. Not spammy at all. Very news worthy stuff if you are watching the economy as I do.
Great little article which exposes the flaws on wireless security alarm systems. (PopularWireless comments: The issue boils down to what support will you get after the sale. After I paid a LARGE chunk of change for my wireless system the company was acquired by another company. The new company will not return a telephone call/voice mail on a simple question- like how to change a battery in a wireless device. Batteries in wireless devices appear to be welded to the connectors! Surprise the new company also monitors the business I manage. The business is a wired system. They are about to lose a monitored wired account. Ultimately it all boils down to whether or not your alarm company really cares about you and your on-going support. I know one big provider in Calvert County, Maryland could care less. Farewell Rampart Alarm or whatever you call yourself now. The sad thing is I KNOW the previous owner and his staff would have never treated his customers this way. Customer service makes all the difference no matter what the marketing and sales department says.)
Netstumbler thinks that current 802.11N wifi products should be avoided since there is no guarantee the products will be backward compatible when the N standard is finally approved. Read the story at the original link for more information. Caveat emptor.
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