Happy holidays from the TRACNotes staff! With exciting developments like bundling and VoIP on the consumer telecommunications horizon, 2004 promises to be a year to remember. TRACNotes will be there every step of the way, keeping you up to date on telecommunications issues affecting YOU! On an administrative note, TRACNotes will be taking a break for the two weeks beginning December 22, 2004. We will publish our first issue of 2004 of Thursday, January 8. TRACNotes is distributed to TRAC members and those who have signed up on the TRAC website "Newscenter." If you do not want to receive TRACNotes, simply click here and let us know(i). You won't receive these in the future. We hope you choose to remain a part of our network, and that you find TRACNotes helpful. Our goal is to provide you useful information about what is happening in the telecommunications marketplace for consumers and to keep you up to date on TRAC's policy advocacy. If you like what you see, please consider becoming a member of TRAC by clicking here(ii).
BUCK$ WATCH
Christmas and New Year's Calling More Expensive For Some Than Others - With millions of Americans calling friends and loved ones this holiday season, consumers should keep the details of their long distance and wireless plans in mind. Wireless customers with unlimited night and weekend calling should consider that calls made on Christmas Day and New Years Day may or may not be considered "night and weekend" minutes, depending on your carrier (see chart). Long distance customers who get a reduced rate for night and weekend (or "off-peak") calling should also check with their carriers to see if holiday calling counts as peak or off-peak calling. For examples, subscribers to Verizon's E-Values plan and MCI's One Net Savings plans are charged at the regular rate for calls on December 25 and January 1.
| Does Holiday Calling Count as Night and Weekend Minutes? |
| Wireless Carrier | Christmas and News Years Day |
| AT&T Wireless | Yes |
| Cingular | No |
| Nextel | No |
| Sprint PCS | Yes |
| T-Mobile | No |
| Verizon Wireless | Yes |
Rate Comparison Websites Not Always the Best Bet For Consumers - Ever feel overwhelmed by all of the long distance "deals" available out there? With literally hundreds of companies competing for your minutes, the choices can be mind-boggling. There are many websites which claim to sort through the deals to provide you with the "lowest rate available." Are these websites all that they claim to be? TRAC doesn't think so. Many of these sites are run by long distance carriers themselves and their rate calculator tools (surprise!) almost always list their own plans as the "cheapest". While the plans listed on these sites usually have very low per-minute rates, they often don't list the plans' additional fees, which can make the low per-minute rates much less attractive when you pay the bill at the end of the month. Be sure to read the fine print on these sites before trusting their recommendations. TRAC's TeleTips charts are the only rate comparison tools to list the "shopping basket" costs of major plans, showing the true out-of-pocket cost to consumers. To find out how to purchase a TeleTips chart, click here(iii).
SPAM WATCH
TRAC Applauds Passage of CAN SPAM Act - On Tuesday, December 17, President Bush signed into law the historic CAN SPAM Act of 2003. "We are very pleased that the President has seen fit to sign this landmark anti-spam legislation," said TRAC Chairman Sam Simon. "However, we do not see this as the 'end-all-be-all' of federal anti-spam legislation. Congress should be sure to allocate sufficient funds to the FTC for enforcement of the Act while continuing to be aware of the growing epidemic of spam," said Simon, "TRAC will continue to be involved in FTC's rulemaking process, which will promulgate guidelines for FTC's enactment and enforcement of Act." Click here(iv) for the full text of TRAC's press release on this issue.
How Does CAN SPAM Act Affect Me? -Many consumers are asking themselves whether the passage of the CAN SPAM Act will reduce the amount of porn, Viagra ads, and requests for money from Nigerian dictators arriving in their inboxes daily. The short answer is yes, but probably not right away. The CAN SPAM Act makes it illegal for spammers to send out e-mail with fraudulent return addresses and requires commercial e-mailers to include a legitimate "opt-out" function in their messages. It also gives ISP's like AOL and Yahoo! as well as state attorneys general the ability to go after spammers in civil court. While the bill won't completely end spam, TRAC believes that the CAN SPAM Act will put a dent in the number of fraudulent e-mails currently clogging up consumers' inboxes.
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page - http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions - http://www.naruc.org/resources/state.shtml
WHAT DO YOU THINK? GOT A TIP YOU WANT TO SHARE? NOMINATE YOUR "SCAM OF THE WEEK" AND YOUR "TIP OF THE WEEK" - IF WE SELECT YOUR SUBMISSION, WE'LL GIVE YOU ONE-YEAR'S FREE MEMBERSHIP IN TRAC, AND ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CONTRIBUTION BY NAME IN TRACNotes. SEND AN E-MAIL TO TRAC@TRAC.ORG TO SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS!
©2003 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source:Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"
Endnotes
