Newsroom: Phone & Cell Phones

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC-Consumer groups are calling on the wireless industry to end three of its most abusive anti-consumer practices--excessive early termination fees, hobbling mobile phone features, and locking out competitive applications.

Today, in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Consumer Union's Chris Murray discussed innovation in the wireless industry anti-competitive practices such as excessive early termination fees. The testimony is on behalf of Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, and Free Press.

"Why do European and Asian consumers have such better choices in mobile phone markets than users in the United States?" asked Chris Murray, senior counsel for Consumers Union. "Because wireless carriers outside the U.S. are not permitted to disable perfectly good mobile phones in order to prevent consumers from changing to another wireless carrier."

• According to the Wall Street Journal, RIM (Blackberry) wanted to offer a mapping feature for free to users that purchased their phones, but AT&T said no, so they could charge $10/month for a similar service they provided.
• The Verizon Worldphone (with a cost of more than $600) has built-in capability to work on mobile networks in Europe, Asia and other GSM networks in the U.S. But Verizon locks that functionality out in order to force subscribers to buy an expensive international plan.

"Consumers paying hundreds of dollars for new mobile phones shouldn't have to pay extra for phones to work as designed, or throw those devices in the trash when they choose another company with lower prices and better service," says Murray. "It's time for the wireless industry to stop these anti-competitive practices."

Click here to read the complete testimony.

Contact: Jennifer Fuson, CU, 202.462.6262