As Congress continues to look into early termination fees (ETFs) charged by cellular carriers for leaving a contract before its date of maturity, it would be interesting to explore imagine a world without such penalties.
Financially, carriers expect a customer to stick around for the entire length of their contract, most often providing the incentive to enter into such a contract by subsidizing the upfront cost of a handset. If a subscriber wishes to duck out early, an ETF is assessed for essentially breaking this contract. But what if Congress passed a bill that would outlaw the use of ETFs altogether? If that were to happen, I would expect a colossal change in the cellular industry, one that would bring a contract-free cellular environment.
How so? If carriers don’t have the legal capacity to charge ETFs that penalize the customer for breaking a contract, the need to enter into a contract for cellular service would cease to exist altogether. The end result would be a cellular environment that centers around contract-free, pre-paid cellular service without ETFs.
But don’t get your hopes up just yet, since the possibility of Congress completely outlawing ETFs is very low to say the least.
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Celluar,
ETF,
Hypothetical
It seems to be an agreed-upon point of view within the Digirati crowd that AT&T is killing the iPhone. If “killing” is not your bowl of soup, then we can substitute “is highly detrimental,” “the Achilles heel,” or “the main reason I switched to another smartphone.” But aside from the few high-profile and outspoken members of the Digirati community, what real reasons exist to prove that AT&T is really the “dark side” in the relationship? In this article, I dissect the great plethora of FUD, bogus, and unfounded claims about AT&T wireless as it relates to the Apple iPhone. Read more »
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ATT,
Apple,
Celluar,
De-FUD,
Decisions,
Featured,
iPhone
Democratic lawmakers are calling for states to ban texting and emailing while driving. The movement comes in light of recent studies that show the practice is more dangerous than drunk driving.
Since 2005, texting has grown eleven-fold – from 10 billion to 110 billion text messages sent per month in December of 2008, according to CTIA – the cellular phone industry’s trade group. As such, an increase in overall use of text messaging would naturally lead to an increase of doing so in the car. A recent study from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk increased by 23 times. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks. The researchers said the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers. A separate study by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.
To date, 14 states as well as the District of Colombia have passed laws banning text messaging while conducting a vehicle. States that don’t implement the proposed laws would face highway funding cuts of around 25 percent. The legislation would be patterned after the way Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban. However, some don’t think that the proposed laws would be effective enough.
Steve Largent, a former Oklahoma congressman who leads CTIA — The Wireless Association, said his organization supports “state legislative remedies to solve this issue. But simply passing a law will not change behavior. We also need to educate new and experienced drivers on the dangers of taking their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.” The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, said it does not doubt the dangers of texting and driving but does not support a ban because it would be difficult to enforce: “Highway safety laws are only effective if they can be enforced and if the public believes they will be ticketed for not complying. To date, that has not been the case with many cell phone restrictions,” said Vernon Betkey, the highway safety association’s chairman.
This all looks to be a problem that should be solved by superior technology rather than increased lawmaking. The market should drive the tech industry to develop and improve in-car speech recognition and synthesis systems that would read incoming text messages or emails, and allow the driver to dictate a response to a message – all without having to look at the cellular device. Microsoft’s SYNC system (TNR coverage) is the most advanced in the marketplace in having both features, although it still needs to be improved in the areas of accuracy. Only available in Ford products (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), the system also needs to become more widely available.
(via Yahoo! News)
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Automotive,
Celluar,
Common Sense,
Legislation,
Microsoft,
Safety,
Sync
Late Friday evening, Apple issued an update to the iPhone operating system in a response to a well-known security vulnerability. iPhone OS 3.0.1 fixes a potential exploit which could allow a remote user to hijack any iPhone by sending a simple series of SMS (text messages).
This update was expected to be released before the BlackHat 2009 security conference last week, where a pair of security researchers who have discovered the flaw presented their findings. Back in 2007, Charlie Miller, security researcher and co-author of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook, demonstrated a WebKit security hole that allowed the hacker to obtain an iPhone user’s personal information. Apple patched the exploit a few days before the demonstration. By contrast, the SMS exploit was patched after Mr. Miller presented details about it. In the days leading up to the patch, I have expressed my frustration with the way Apple and AT&T handled the entire situation from a customer communication and customer service perspective. Read more »
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Apple,
Celluar,
Hacks,
Software Update,
iPhone
