WIRELESS WATCH
Beware of Hidden Texting Fees With Popular TV Show Contests - Thinking of texting in your vote for who should get fired from “The Apprentice” this week? What you might not realize is that your vote could be costing you some coin. The show’s “Get Rich With Trump” game invites viewers to text in their votes for who should be fired each week and gives them the chance to win a $10,000 prize. As is so often the case, there’s a catch. Each text message incurs a 99¢ charge, in addition to any charges that your wireless provider might have for text messaging. The popular new show “Deal or No Deal,” has a similar contest with an identical $10,000 prize and 99¢ entry fee. Don’t be fooled in to texting your vote in to these contests. State and federal law requires that these shows allow contest entrants to play free of charge. To enter “The Apprentices” contest for free, visit their contest website during the show’s Monday evening broadcast by clicking here. The “Deal or No Deal,” contest is open during that show’s airtime (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) by clicking here. While both shows do disclose the 99¢ fee at least once during their broadcasts, it is easy to miss and the fee is not typically disclosed during every contest promo.
MyFoodPhone Is The Latest Use For Camera Phones – Sprint Nextel certainly seems to be eager to capitalize on the popularity of GSM-equipped camera phones. As we mentioned in TRACNotes three weeks ago, Sprint Nextel’s Family Locator service tries to entice worried parents into signing up for service. Recently, Sprint Nextel announced its newest gadget, MyFoodPhone, which aims to help food-conscious subscribers keep better track of their calories. The idea of the service is intriguing, if a bit out of the ordinary. For a $9.99 monthly fee, subscribers to the MyFoodPhone service can use their camera phone to take pictures of the food they eat and send the photos to a “MyFoodPhone Nutrition Advisor” who will monitor what the subscriber eats, offer suggestions on modifying their eating habits, and motivate them to achieve their individual health goals via video feedback on the subscriber’s handset. In addition, MyFoodPhone's "Visual Food Journal" allows customers to send their Picture Mail photos to a Web-based Food Journal at www.myfoodphone.com/sprint and log data such as weight, exercise, and calories burned to track their progress on their Sprint phones and share their dieting experiences with fellow users on the Web. For more information on MyFoodPhone, click here.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
Check With TRAC For Long Distance Service Advice – KMGH ABC Channel 7 in Denver, Colorado recently ran a story on rising phone fees. The story, which directs readers to TRAC, mentions that MCI is raising fees on 19 long distance plans, anywhere from $1 to $2 a month and that the company has recently raised its property tax surcharge. In addition, the story mentions that AT&T has added a monthly charge of $3.95 on its value rate plan, that the surcharge on its 10-cent offer long distance plan is going up 20 cents, and that it is tacking another 50 cents onto its carrier cost recovery fee. To read the full story, click here.
TRAC AND YOU
Do You Use All Your Cell Minutes Each Month? – By some estimates, wireless phones users leave a whopping 78% of their available wireless minutes unused each month. Since most cell phone subscribers pay for use-it-or-lose-it buckets of wireless minutes, those unused minutes are costing consumers big bucks. Are you using all of your available wireless minutes every month? If not, how many minutes do you tend to leave “on the table” in a typical month? Do you find that you consistently go over your monthly minute allotment and incur expensive overage charges? TRAC wants to know how you use the minutes that you have available. Send us your thoughts via e-mail at trac@trac.org.
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 a one-year free membership in TRAC and acknowledge your contribution by name in TRACNotes. Send an e-mail to trac@trac.org to submit your ideas!
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©2006 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"
