AT&T paying $18M to settle wireless claims
AT&T Inc. is paying $18 million to settle claims that it imposed unfairly high fees on wireless customers who wanted to end their contracts.
The settlement covers customers from as far back as 1998. Those who were charged an early termination fee, or ETF, could get as much as $140 back, if they canceled a two-year contract just before it was about to expire. Those who canceled earlier would get less.
Those who were never charged an early termination fee can get an AT&T long distance phone card with up to 200 minutes, or if they have a AT&T contract, choose to have the ETF changed from a $175 flat rate to one that is prorated.
AT&T used to charge an ETF of $175, regardless of how long the customer had left on the contract. Like other carriers, it started prorating the fee in 2008, so customers canceling after a year of service paid less.
Early termination fees recover some of the subsidies that carriers pay to reduce the price consumers pay for new phones. But in several suits AT&T and other carriers faced around the country, customers claimed the fees were illegal because they bore no relation to the carrier’s actual costs, and discouraged customers from switching carriers. The consumers also complained that carriers would extend the contract periods, sometimes secretly, when customers asked to change minor provisions in their contracts.
Dallas-based AT&T said it “strongly” denies any wrongdoing, and said no court had found it at fault. It’s settling to avoid further litigation, it said.
Sprint Nextel Corp. settled similar claims in August for $17.5 million.
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission sent letters to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Communications Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Google Inc., asking whether they give customers adequate notice about ETFs.
Google and Apple tussle over Voice
Google Inc. is trying to make its Voice application easier to use on the iPhone, whether Apple Inc. likes it or not.
In an upgrade announced Tuesday, Google revised the mobile Web site for Voice so that it’s easier to display the service’s most popular features on the iPhone’s latest operating system.
Among other things, Voice offers an alternative dialing pad, voice mail and international calling discounts.
Apple has refused to allow the Voice program to be distributed through the iPhone’s applications store since last summer on grounds that it would duplicate or alter important iPhone features. To get around that roadblock, Google is trying to entice iPhone users to rely on a mobile Web browser to access Voice.
Google says the overhaul will make the Web browser experience more like what users would get if Google were allowed to offer a downloadable app that could be installed on the iPhone.
Google already offers downloadable Voice apps for Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry phones and devices running on Android, an operating system developed by Google. The upgrade to the mobile Web site also makes Voice simpler to use on devices that run on Palm Inc.’s operating system.
The jousting over the Voice application underscores the rising tensions between Google and Apple, the two most valuable companies in Silicon Valley.
Apple’s rebuff of Google’s Voice application triggered a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Apple and AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. service provider, were trying to stifle potential competition.
Apple told the FCC that it hasn’t rejected the Voice application outright, but Google says it still hasn’t heard anything further on its attempts to make the program available for iPhone downloading. AT&T says it didn’t take part in Apple’s review of the Voice application.
Google’s Voice service had 1.4 million users as of October, according to a disclosure to the FCC.
Program will warn of computer danger
A research organization that tries to warn computer users about programs that do sneaky things on their computers has spun off from Harvard University.
StopBadware says it will operate as a standalone nonprofit with funding from Google Inc., eBay Inc.’s PayPal and Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser. It was initially set up as part of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet &Society.
StopBadware issues what it calls “badware alerts” about corporations whose applications do what the organization deems unwanted and harmful things to users’ computers. For instance, it once put AOL on its badware list because downloads of the AOL program automatically came with other software the group said consumers don’t necessarily need or want. The organization also targets purveyors of spyware and other forms of malicious software.
Associated Press
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