TRACNotes

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• BellSouth Local Customers to See July Fee Increases
• Forwarding Cell Phone Calls Made "Easy"
• Top 10 U.S. CAN SPAM Unsubscribe Violators Outed

BUCKS WATCH

BellSouth Local Customers to See July Fee Increases - The summer is about to get a bit hotter for many of BellSouth’s local service customers. Effective July 22, subscribers to BellSouth’s popular Complete Choice local service plans in the following states will see their monthly service fee increase by $1:

• Florida - Old price: $30.00, New price: $31.00 (click hereⁱ for details)
• Georgia - Old price: $34.00, New price: $35.00 (click hereⁱⁱ for details)
• Kentucky - Old price: $33.50, New price: $34.50 (click hereⁱⁱⁱ for details)
• Louisiana - Old price: $33.00, New price: $34.00 (click here^iv for details)
• North Carolina - Old price: $29.00, New price: $30.00 (click here^v for details)
• South Carolina - Old price: $32.00, New price: $33.00 (click here^vi for details)
• Tennessee - Old price: $29.00, New price: $30.00 (click here^vii for details)

In addition to the Complete Choice fee increases, BellSouth local service subscribers who pay for Inside Wire Maintenance Service (IWMS) will soon see be paying for another fee increase. Effective July 1, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee subscribers who pay for the IWMS will see the cost for the service increase by 45¢ from $5.50 to $5.95 per month. Consumers should be aware that IWMS is a common “up sell” for local telephone providers. According to the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel inside-wiring problems that would be covered by most IWMS plans are relatively rare and only occur once every 20 to 30 years. Over 20 years, the cost of BellSouth’s $5.95 per month IWMS plan is a whopping $1,428! Most newer homes have inside telephone wiring in the walls that can be expensive to fix. However, unless you have experienced telephone wiring problems in the past, you can probably drop the IWMS plan from your local service plan without fear. For additional information on telephone line repairs, click here^viii.

WIRELESS WATCH

Forwarding Cell Phone Calls Made "Easy" - Many wireless phone plans now include a call forwarding feature where calls to the wireless phone are forwarded to another number. For example, an executive who will be on a twenty-hour flight to Tokyo may wish to have calls to his wireless phone forwarded to his secretary’s phone. Consumers awaiting important calls who don’t have great cellular coverage inside their houses may wish to have calls to their wireless phones forwarded to their wireline home phone number. While useful, call forwarding can be a costly option to use on a regular basis however. Most wireless carriers either charge airtime usage or high per-minute rates (10¢-20¢ per minute) for all forwarded calls. See below for instructions on how to activate and deactivate call forwarding with the six major national wireless carriers:

• Alltel – To Activate: Press *72 + 10-digit forwarding phone number + SEND. To Deactivate: Press *720 or *73 + SEND
• Cingular (former AT&T Wireless subscribers only) - GSM Phones: To Activate: Press *21* + 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded, then press SEND. To Deactivate: Dial #002#, then press SEND; TDMA phones: To Activate: Press *71 + 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded, then press SEND. To Deactivate: Dial #002#, then press SEND; Note: Call forwarding minutes do not apply to included plan minutes and are charged an additional per-minute fee.
• Cingular (all others) - GSM phones: To activate: Scroll through the menu and select Settings. Scroll down and select Call Settings. Select Forwarding. Scroll down and select the appropriate Forwarding option. (Example: Forward all voice calls or Forward when available.) Follow the menu prompts and enter the 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded. Select OK. To deactivate: Scroll through the menu and select Settings. Scroll down and select Call Settings. Select Forward. Select Cancel. Select OK; TDMA phones: To activate: Press *72 (*71 in Arkansas, Austin, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Washington D.C., and Upstate New York). Press 1+10-digit phone number to which your calls should be forwarded. Press Send. After confirmation tone, press END. To deactivate: Press *73 (*710 in Arkansas, Austin, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Tulsa; *62 in South Texas; and *723 in Boston). Press 1+10-digit phone number to which your calls should be forwarded. Press Send. After confirmation tone, press END; Note: Forwarded calls are billed airtime from the time the call is answered until it is ended. Each call forwarded may receive, depending on your location, per minute/per call or interconnect charges based on where the call is forwarded. Long Distance charges apply if the call is forwarded to a long distance number.
• Nextel - Instructions vary by phone. Check your users manual for phone-specific directions. (Note: 20¢ per minute call forwarding rate applies to all local calls. Additional charges may apply for forwarded long distance calls.)
• Sprint PCS - To Activate: Press *72 + 10-digit forwarding phone number + TALK. To Deactivate: Press *720 or *73 + TALK (Note: Call Forwarding calls are charged an extra rate of $0.10 per minute, plus any applicable long-distance charges.)
• T-Mobile - Instructions vary by phone. Check your users manual for phone-specific directions.
• Verizon Wireless - To Activate: Press *72 + 10-digit forwarding phone number + SEND. After confirmation tone, press END. To Deactivate: Press *720 +SEND. After confirmation tone, press END. (Note: Airtime charges apply to forwarded calls, even if the call is send to a wireline phone. Toll and long distance charges may also apply.)

SPAM WATCH

Top 10 U.S. CAN SPAM Unsubscribe Violators Outed - An anti-spam technology company in Illinois recently conducted an interesting study on U.S. companies that are violating the 2003 CAN SPAM Act (which TRAC supported). The company, LashBack LLC, recently unveiled their top ten list of U.S.-based spam companies that use bogus unsubscribe links. According to the CAN SPAM Act, U.S. advertisers must provide a working unsubscribe link on every commercial e-mail message they send out. The advertisers on Lashbacks’s list have been shown to be in violation of this rule. Consumers would be well advised to check out Lashback’s list and refrain from clicking on e-mails with any of the links listed in the “Unsubscribe Link” column. (Note: Mozilla Firefox users will need to use Internet Explorer to see the links in the “Hover Over to View” images). To see Lashback’s list, click here^ix.

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

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©2005 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"

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