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The Dallas Morning News has us covered for today’s consumer topic. A short time ago, Sen. Herb Kohl asked carriers why SMS rates are so high. It costs very little to push the miniscule data pieces across the network, so he wonders how a carrier can charge 20 cents for each message sent and received. Not long thereafter, lawyers started suing carriers over the issue. The writer, Andrew Smith, notes that while massive profits aren’t illegal, “people start thinking about collusion and antitrust suits” when companies all hike their rates.

Read the rest of Senator’s SMS questions lead to lawsuits…

The big news around the wireless space today was the unveiling of the world’s first Android phone, to be available on T-Mobile. If you want the full run-down of the phone, check out our pals at TmoNews. Those dudes are on top of things. There’s one thing, contained in the linked post, which bothers the crap out of us. T-Mobile is placing a soft cap of 1 GB per month on their 3G network. Rabble rabble rabble! One gig, after all, isn’t a whole ton of data. Yes, Canada might be playing the world’s smallest violin for us, but this simply isn’t acceptable in these here United States.

Read the rest of Yay for Android! Boo for data usage caps!…

I love me a good survey. Not only do I like to see the results, but I also like to see any flaws in methodology. Today, we’ll talk about a new survey by FindLaw, regarding text messaging while driving. Unsurprisingly, nearly half — 48 percent — of drivers age 18 to 24 have sent a text message while driving. That number declines as you go up the age scales. Over a quarter, 27 percent, of those age 25 to 34 are guilty. That drops to 19 percent for 35 to 44, 11 percent for 45-54, two percent for 55-64, and one percent for 65 and up. However, I’m wondering if the phrasing of the question in this case might lead to skewed results.

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Congress wants to ban states from charging new taxes on cell phones for the next five years. They want to federalize early termination fees. In essence, they want to take power away from the states in order to create (carrier-friendly) broad regulations. Not everyone agrees that this is the best path, though. In fact, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wants states more involved, according to Wireless Week. The Commission wants states to have a big say in any kind of regulation proposed by Congress or the FCC.

Read the rest of Debating the role of states in wireless regulation…

A little over a year ago, Sprint fell under some scrutiny for ditching a number of customers. These subscribers still had time left on their contracts, but Sprint thought it best for the two to part ways. This caused a bit of anger at first, but then Sprint dropped the bomb on us, that these were really problem customers. As in, they would call customer service almost once a day. This was under former CEO Gary Forsee. Now, under CEO Dan Hesse, Sprint is up to the same old thing. Those 776,000 customers they lost in the second quarter? Some of them were intentional.

Read the rest of Sprint continues ditching problem customers…

On our sister site, we talk about Leap Wireless, as Cricket Wireless, a good deal. For those of you unfamiliar, they’re a regional carrier which offers unlimited calling plans for flat monthly rates. They and MetroPCS compete with this service scheme on a prepaid basis. We know that Leap was upset about the way the 700 MHz auction turned out, with Verizon eating up the C Block, and AT&T picking off smaller licenses, implicitly intended for regional and new carriers. Now they’re upset about the Alltel-Verizon merger, and want the move blocked by the FCC, according to Reuters.

Read the rest of Leap Wireless opposes Verizon-Alltel merger…

It seems that every story I’ve read regarding the T-Mobile open network (with particular props to mocoNews) compares the idea to the iPhone app store. I’m not quite sure why, other than the fact that we all love to compare things to the iPhone. Instead, though, of this open development environment and application store covering one offering from T-Mobile, it will run across the carrier’s handset lineup. So instead of having 10 million potential people buying apps from the store, T-Mobile has over 30 million potential application users. Of course, how they implement this will play a large role in how many of those 30 million actually buy them.

Read the rest of T-Mobile to open platform, doesn’t need no stinkin’ iPhone…

Here’s some quick back story on this suit against Cingular/AT&T. Back in 2006, a Cingular employee noticed a charge on his bill for Washington’s Business & Occupation tax. For this he sued the carrier, citing breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. How did these charges come about? Because it amounted to Cingular passing along a tax on its business to its customers. Unfortunately for Washington consumers, the case was thrown out by a federal judge, who said that the Federal Communications Act keeps mobile carriers safe from some state laws. An appeals court in good old California has reinstate the case, according to Reuters.

Read the rest of Class action against AT&T reinstated…

Bills, bills, bills. They’re the the number one area of frustration for recent graduates, middle-aged folks, and seniors. Basically, everyone who has any amount of responsibility. Yet they’re not going away any time soon. So it’s nice when the act of paying the bills, always the worst part, becomes a little bit easier. AT&T has announced a partnership with CheckFree, which will allow customers to pay their bills through over 3,000 financial institutions.

Read the rest of AT&T offers customers new ebilling service…

I’m sure not too many people were happy yesterday when we discussed Sprint limiting their mobile broadband service. No one likes limitations, especially on the Internet, which we’ve been used to getting on an unlimited basis. Today, though, we learn that they have at least helped out consumers in one way. According to PhoneNews.com, they’ll be dropping their phone as a modem tethering service from $40 per month to $15. That’s quite a hefty and welcome drop.

Read the rest of Sprint drops price of phone as modem…