Prepaid Phone Cards Offer Good Value to Careful Shoppers - Prepaid calling cards are a popular way to keep telephone bills in check. They offer the flexibility to be used at home, from a payphone, at a hotel, or while on vacation. There are some important considerations to keep in mind before buying a prepaid card, however. First, consumers should be sure to call the company that offers the card to ask them about any fees, surcharges, and billing increments for a particular card before using the card. The company's customer service number is usually printed on the card or on the card company's website. Second, consumers who tend to make a lot of short calls should look for cards with lower per-call fees and higher per-minute rates. Consumers who make a few long calls should concentrate on cards with low per-minute rates, even if per-call fees are higher. Finally, consumers making frequent international calls should look for cards that offer a low rate for their specific country or region of interest. As always, consumers should read the fine print on any card before they buy. For more information on prepaid calling cards, click here(iii).
Tips For Tracking Local/Long Distance Package Calling - Consumers who subscribe to a local/long distance package (or "bundle"), may find that their long distance calling is not detailed on their monthly bills. While bills may be thinner with bundled plans, it makes it hard for consumers to compare it with other plans. It can also become a problem if consumers want to look up a previously called or received phone number. Finally, it could be especially important in legal disputes. Subscribers who absolutely must have a copy of their calls may need to get a subpoena. TRAC suggests that consumers record and time each and every long distance call for a month at least once every three months; sooner if one's calling patterns change dramatically. Many of the newer phones have features that allow calls to be timed. This information can then be used to compare other long distance options.
WIRELESS WATCH
Bad News for Verizon Wireless Customers - In their new bills, Verizon Wireless tells its customers that for national uniformity reasons, each time they check their voice mail from their wireless phone, the time counts against prime-time minutes. One wonders why the call doesn't qualify as a "mobile to mobile" call, but it doesn't. Time permitting, subscribers with two phones in the household may want to use one to call the other to check voice mail, which would count as a "mobile to mobile" call.
Merger Information for Cingular and AT&T Wireless Subscribers - The big news in the wireless industry this week is the acquisition of AT&T Wireless by Cingular Wireless. For subscribers of these two services, the most immediate effect could be a decrease in dropped calls and "dead zones" due to the integration of the two carriers' GSM networks. In the long run, the proposed merger could lead to the rollout of more advanced services such as 3G and wireless broadband. The impact that the merger may have on wireless calling costs is still unclear, though higher prices due to a reduction in the number of competitors is a possibility.
Tips to Remember When Calling 911 From a Wireless Phone - According to the FCC, 30% of all 911 calls are now being placed from wireless phones. Consumers making a emergency call on their wireless phones should keep some important information in mind. First, callers should be sure to give the location to the emergency operator immediately. Many areas of the country are not equipped with E911 technology, so the operator may not know your location. Second, as calls on wireless phones are often dropped, callers should be sure to give the operator their wireless phone number so that the operator can call back in the event of a disconnection. Finally, most states have a designated number available for reporting minor traffic accidents. For example, in Virginia the number is "#77". The number for other localities can usually be found at the front of a phone book. Click here(iv) for more information on dialing 911 from a wireless phone.
SPAM WATCH
Do-Not-Spam List Sites Are Bogus - The publicity surrounding the passage of the CAN SPAM Act has had an unintended consequence in the rise of bogus "do not spam" sites. These sites often attempted to mimic the Federal Trade Commission's "Do Not Call" Registry site in order to get consumers to enter their e-mail addresses, presumably to generate a database of addresses for spammers. To date, the national "do not spam" registry mentioned in the CAN SPAM Act has not yet been put in place. Consumers should avoid sites with names like www.unsub.us, www.remove.org, www.globalremove.com, and others. Click here(v) for more information on these scams.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
Chairman Simon Addresses Consumer Concerns Over Cingular and AT&T Wireless Merger - TRAC Chairman Samuel Simon appeared on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on February 18 to discuss the consumer impact of the proposed Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger. "There's always some concern about taking a competitor out of the network. In the hyper-competitive wireless, I don't believe that's going to be a problem right now. There will still be five major carriers out these competing," said Simon(vi). "The real concern isn't this merger - but rather the next one[s] that are likely to follow," he added in an article in The Boston Globe(vii). TRAC's media statement on the proposed merger is available by clicking here(viii).
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/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
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!
©2004 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
