Amy Klobuchar, True America Hero and Senator of Minnesota, introduced a bill in Congress today in response to Verizon’s doubled early termination fees, aiming to limit them. It’s just like the civil rights movement, except with smartphones!
AOL tried to squeeze a little over $US100 in fees from a customer for upgrades he hadn’t asked for, hadn’t approved, hadn’t used and of which he hadn’t even been notified. Unluckily for AOL, that customer is a professional writer.
Europe may be ok with passengers making in-flight calls on their mobile phones, but at least a few members of Congress have the foresight to see how this situation could become problematic in the US. A new bill has been introduced that promises to ban mobile phone calls on US flights, but not text messaging and web surfing. The bill has yet to be passed, but the question is: Do you support a ban?
An AT&T call-center employee has taken it upon himself to answer the allegations of the infamous 300-page iPhone bill, apparently in lieu of an official response from the telco. While not “defending” AT&T, he did say this:
[UPDATED: Check Justine's interview after the jump]Following this weekend’s Gore Alert post, Justine Ezarik —of JustinTV fame— has just received her first iPhone bill. Three. Hundred. Pages. See her unwrapping the package from AT&T in the video after the jump.
AU: Not very relevant to AU, but damn if it ain’t funny! I doubt Apple are doing much for their ‘green’ cred with stuff like this, though I’m sure they’ll say they have no say over how the network does their business… -SB
According to Ars Technica, the iPhone bills are a complete waste of paper and resources. Knowing that they can go up to 52 double-sided pages long and beyond, we agree. Apparently, AT&T itemizes everything in the most detailed way, even when and how you surf the Internet via EDGE.
For instance, I know that on July 27 at 3:21 p.m. I had some data use that, under the To/From heading, AT&T has helpfully listed as “Data Transfer.” The Type of file? “Data.” My total charge? $0.00.
Personally, I think it’s great that they give their clients all the detail they possibly can, but here’s a free tip for the guys at the Death Star: send the bill with the short summary and provide all the billing details on-line. Or while you are at it, create a special billing page optimized for the iPhone screen so people can check their usage and spending on-the-go.
Really, The Steve is not going to be a happy bunny about this, Randall. [Ars Technica]
