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No one likes getting their cell phone bill. An innocent little call outside your calling area that goes on too long could easily rack up the roaming charges you weren’t expecting. But just when you think your slightly larger cell phone bill is frustrating, just be happy you did not get a phone bill like these people. After reading about these six big cell phone bills you will be happy did not show up in your mailbox, yours might not seem so bad.
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The government was looking to raise $12 billion or so through the auction of 700 MHz airwaves. So they must be pleased to know that the bidding reached $11.6 billion at the end of the day on Wednesday. This includes all blocks — the A and B regional licenses, the coveted national C block, and the public safety D block. And yes, bidding is anonymous, so we don’t know who’s in on what. But we do know that despite the bid price, the C block hasn’t yet met its $4.6 billion reserve, which it was previously on pace to meet yesterday.
Read the rest of 700 MHz auction up to $11.6 billion…

We know that Sprint isn’t doing too well. They’re losing money, they’re losing customers, and they’re losing executives. But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to trim from their core business. Nextel, acquired by Sprint in 2005, has long been known for their iDEN network, which features push-to-talk. This is a favorite feature in many industries, including construction. Plans originally had been to “cap off” investment in the network after 2007. We’ll, we’re there, and iDEN is losing customers faster than the CDMA end. Yet Sprint has committed to at least another four years of iDEN investment.
Read the rest of Sprint says iDEN network will stick around…

I was under the impression that there was enough disfavor to prevent a cell phone directory from being created. When the idea was introduced, most carriers were against it. Verizon in particular went as far as to say that it was a “dumb idea.” Having your landline listed is one thing, but your cell phone? We carry these devices with us everywhere, and not just anyone should be able to look up that number and find us. You know, the whole privacy thing. But there’s this company, Intelius, which specializes in finding information on anyone and everyone. Type in a name, pay a fee, and get all the information they can find on someone. Well, now that includes your cell phone number.
Read the rest of Verizon speaks out against cell phone directory…

So your cell phone can already make calls, send and receive text messages, exchange pictures and video clips, take pictures, listen to music, watch movies, send email, surf the Internet, and hell, if you really wanted it to, probably act as the remote control for your TV. So it only makes sense that it would eventually run a text-to-speech application. It’s called K-NFB Reading Technology, and it’s going to drop on the Nokia N82. And it’s pretty damn cool.
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So apparently consumers can win in arbitration hearings. A potential $1 billion class action suit is set to move forward, thanks to a ruling by Eugene Farber, a senior arbitrator-mediator for the American Arbitration Association. The class, which at 70 million is the largest ever certified in arbitration, is disputing early termination fees they were assessed by the company. These fees are being deemed “illegal” by plaintiffs’ council, Scott Bursor. This I’m having trouble wrapping my head around.
Read the rest of Class action filed against Verizon over ETFs…

It wasn’t even three weeks ago when Verizon announced that it was raising text messaging rates. Not to be outdone or undersold, AT&T is right behind ‘em, raising their SMS rates to 20 cents. So, like Verizon subscribers, AT&Ters will do well to purchase a text messaging plan, which is exactly what they want you to do. Oh, and they’ll be raising MMS to 30 cents a message, which just excites and over-joys me.
Read the rest of AT&T jumps on 20 cent SMS bandwagon…

No, it wasn’t a record-breaking quarter for Verizon. No, they did not gain on their chief rival, AT&T. No, they’re not crossing the 70-million subscriber threshold anytime in the near future. But Verizon did have themselves a solid fourth quarter, adding two million customers amid the holiday blitz. This is a tick higher than the 1.85 million net additions predicted by analysts. Of course, good times might not be extending that far into the future.
Read the rest of Verizon announces fourth quarter results…

What is a company to do when its market nears saturation? Mobile phone manufacturers are slowly realizing this dilemma. After years of double-digit increases, including 12.4 percent in 2007, we might start seeing single digit increases for the next few years. Hey, when you have lots of people buying expensive smartphones, they’re not going to want to upgrade so soon. And so you have people hanging onto phones for two, three years, when they were more apt to purchase a new phone every year before we started seeing handsets get in the $600 range.
Read the rest of Mobile phone sales to stagger a bit in 2008…

Seems to be a lot of phones being debuted recently. Not sure why that is, but it certainly is neat to see new gadgets hitting the market. Today is Alltel’s day, with three new handsets being added to its lineup. Well, two new ones and a revamp. Alltel has had the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, but now they get it in red — Verizon is getting a pink one, and Sprint’s will also be red. The other additions are the LG Scoop and the Samsung Muse.
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