End of early termination fees? Options

[Mommy]

In California, cell phone early termination fees have been made illegal. The article is linked below. Read it. It's not long at all. It offers both sides of the argument. Two points to discuss: 1) Would you rather have expensive phones and no contract termination fees or would you rather have the fees and subsidized phone prices and 2) do you think it should be a state or federal issue?

I think it should be a federal issue for the reasons the article mentioned, but I don't know what I feel about the first question.

Anyways, discuss.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/99655

[Spectatrix]

I think telecommunications is largely under federal domain, so this too should probably be a federal issue.

I would rather have expensive phones and no fees, because consumer complaints would probably end up driving prices down anyway and it would get rid of this ridiculous hardware-lockin crap. I'd much prefer for phone selection to be independent of carrier selection.

[impala454]

I believe I saw something very recently that said the FCC laid the smackdown on one of the major carriers over invalid charges for early termination.

[Spectatrix]

You mean the FCC might actually be useful for something?

[impala454]

I know I read a better article on it, but here's one I found:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9967344-7.html

Early termination fees for wireless cell phone contracts came under fire during a Federal Communications Commission hearing Thursday as commissioners examined an industry-backed proposal that could soften the blow of these fees for some consumers.

The FCC held the hearing to gather more information as it considers a proposal that would give new cell phone customers a 30-day grace period to cancel their contracts without penalty. After those 30 days, early termination charges would then be prorated or reduced over the duration of the contract.

I know I saw where verizon or AT&T or someone lost a big lawsuit by the FCC over early termination fees.

[dauss]

You mean the FCC might actually be useful for something?

I was able to get a refund from Sprint for their(and all other cell companies) sneaky "new phone activation" charge. Just filed a formal complaint to the FCC and within a couple weeks, Sprint was calling me to let me know that it would be credited back to my account.