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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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 OPINION 
4

Hello, Senators? Greedy Cell Phone Biz Needs Attention

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(Newser) – It's nice to see Congress looking out for the cell phone customer with hearings on carrier exclusivity, but there's plenty of dubious practices in the business they should look into before they worry about getting us all Verizon iPhones, David Pogue writes in the New York Times. 

  • Texting fees. These have doubled from 10 to 20 cents in the last couple of years for no apparent reason. By one estimate, sending data via text message now costs 60 million times as much as sending the same data via email.

  • Double billing. How did we let phone companies start charging us to both send and receive calls? It doesn't happen with landlines—or in Europe.
  • International call charges. With the advent of zero-cost technology for international calls through Skype or Google, cell phone carriers still charging $1.50 to $5 a minute are starting to look more than a little greedy.
Click below for the full list of gripes.

The Senate Commerce Committee is currently holding hearings on the cell phone industry's handset-exclusivity practices.
The Senate Commerce Committee is currently holding hearings on the cell phone industry's handset-exclusivity practices.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
"When I call you, a chat that eats up 10 minutes of my airtime allowance also eats up 10 minutes of yours," Pogue writes. "Hello, Senator?"   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
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Right now, the cell carriers spend about $6 billion a year on advertising. Why doesn’t it occur to them that they’d attract a heck of a lot more customers by making them happy instead of miserable?
- David Pogue

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4 comments
VIEWING:
 
Timinator2K
Jul 23, 09 7:37 AM CDT
The cell phone business has been a scam from the outset...with millions of more-than-willing victims. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+5
IN RESPONSE:
radnip
Jul 31, 09 6:22 AM CDT
Public or private. Public or private...
Vote up! Vote down!
0
TerrifiedCitizen
Jul 23, 09 8:19 AM CDT
These issues aren't likely to be fixed any time soon; why do you think our lawmakers never receive a cell phone bill? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+3
geneparmesan
Jul 23, 09 9:49 AM CDT
We don't have to have cell phones. They can charge whatever we'll pay. Are they greedy? Sure, but who isn't these days? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+2
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