Hasta La Gadget!

A member of the FCC’s five-person commission, Mignon Clyburn, has sent out a letter today in response to Verizon’s earlier reply regarding questions surrounding its gargantuan $350 early termination fee on so-called “advanced devices,” and in brief, it looks like this issue is far from tied off. Her choicest quote is that she found Verizon’s answers “unsatisfying and, in some cases, troubling,” noting that customers are already paying “high” monthly fees and suggesting that the public interest isn’t being served when someone gets slammed with a three-digit cancellation charge mid-contract. She also straight-up calls the company out on its claim that customers aren’t being inadvertently charged when the press the web button on their phone without an appropriate plan, saying that “press reports and consumer complaints strongly suggest otherwise.” Commissioner Clyburn’s conclusion? “I look forward to exploring this issue in greater depth with my colleagues in the New Year.” Dum dum dummmmm. Follow the break for the full text of the letter.

[Thanks, Daniel P.]

Continue reading FCC commish says Verizon’s ETF response is ‘unsatisfying and, in some cases, troubling’

FCC commish says Verizon’s ETF response is ‘unsatisfying and, in some cases, troubling’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even though the FCC just gave Verizon until Monday to respond to its inquiries regarding the company’s new $350 “advanced device” early termination fee, they’ve shown some hustle here and delivered their 77 (yes, seventy-seven) page response today. Here are the two big takeaways consumers are going to care about:

• The company justifies the advanced device ETF a couple ways; it starts out by referring to some 2003 statements by the FCC in which the Commission says that it doesn’t support the concept of customers breaking contracts and that carriers have a right to recoup those fees. Of course, that really doesn’t drive to the point here, which is that Verizon’s now charging two completely different ETFs based on a rather arbitrary line in the sand drawn by Verizon; to that end, the carrier says that the additional cost it incurs to procure the devices on its advanced list is greater than the difference between the two ETFs ($175) on average. It also says that it needs that extra guaranteed revenue to keep its broadband network up to snuff, since advanced devices are more likely to strain it.
• Regarding the weirdness at the end of the contract — where a customer still owes $120 23 months into a two-year deal — Verizon says that it’s still losing money (read: we should be thankful they’re prorating at all). As an example, it says that its average loss for a customer canceling 12 months into a contract is about double the $230 prorated ETF on an advanced device, and that statistically speaking, customers are far more likely to cancel early on than late. While we don’t doubt that, we think they’re trying to divert the conversation here just a bit.

It’s hard to say whether these responses are going to sate the FCC on the matter, but seeing how Verizon’s showing no signs that it’s interesting in changing its policies, this could still turn into a battle royale. Stay tuned — something tells us this isn’t the last we’ll hear on the matter.

[Thanks, Daniel P.]

Verizon to FCC: hey, you said ETFs were okay! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still not totally clear on how exactly Verizon intends to enter (or rather, re-enter) the Palm stage in 2010; we know there’s definitely a WiFi-equipped CDMA Pixi out there that’ll likely find its way into Big Red’s clutches, but otherwise, we really need to wait for this event at CES next month. Well, maybe — we’ve got another little clue here in the form of some tips to PhoneArena stating that a “Pre Plus” has found its way into the carrier’s systems, which fits in nicely with info we’d previously received from one of our trusted sources that Verizon’s Pre would be somehow “different” from Sprint’s though we don’t yet know how. As far as we can tell, this isn’t the same as that WiFi Pixi (wouldn’t it be confusing if it was?), so we should probably expect at least two webOS models on Verizon over the next few months. In other news, that Motorola Calgary (pictured) appears to be shaping up as the “Devour” with a 3 megapixel cam and Blur running on Android 2.1 — yes, 2.1, not 1.5, which should give hope to CLIQ owners that an update is probably in the works. Finally, there’s talk of an LG VS750 in a mega-thin form factor running WinMo 6.5 with global roaming capability, but we don’t have a picture of that one just yet. Anyhow, back to the Pre Plus, we’re accepting all guesses as to what the “Plus” in the name might stand for — 16GB of integrated storage or a microSD slot seem like obvious candidates, but feel free to get creative with us.

[Image via BGR]

Verizon getting Palm Pre Plus and Android-powered Motorola Devour? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were looking for just one more reason to ditch Sprint then this could be it. A CDMA-flavored Palm Pixi just cleared the FCC — yes, another one — and we can say with confidence it’s not coming to Sprint this time around. Better yet, Palm’s model P121EWW matches up with that P121 code we saw leaked a while back for Big Red (Sprint’s model is P120EWW), and this sucker got tested for 802.11b/g WiFi. Looks like that Sprint ad touting the Pixi’s non-existent WiFi was more than just wishful thinking. With webOS-powered Palm gear already confirmed on Verizon for “early next year,” are you really going to make the jump to a WiFi-less Pixi on Sprint knowing what’s on the way? And more importantly, can we expect another terrifying series of ads targeting Sprint this time instead of AT&T?

Palm Pixi clears FCC with Verizon frequencies and WiFi in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every time an Android phone launches, a stopwatch quietly starts ticking, because we all know it’s just a matter of time before the thing gets rooted. This time around, it’s a big one: it appears that the mighty Droid has fallen to the hands of hackers looking to drop whatever they please onto the phone’s firmware — and anyone enjoying Cyanogen’s works over in the HTC world understands full well the benefits of being able to do this. We’ll hold off on cracking open the bubbly until we start to see some practical benefits to the root, but this is a stellar way to start if it’s legit and functional.

[Thanks, Eliot]

Motorola Droid finally rooted? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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