VOIP WATCH
Survey: Time Warner Digital Phone Tops In VoIP Service Quality - Reliability and audio quality for VoIP telephone service is getting better but there is still room for improvement, according to a new VoIP survey released last week by market research firm Keynote Systems. Time Warner Digital Phone ranked first in the November/December Keynote study as the overall best VoIP service provider for both reliability and audio clarity, edging out Vonage and AT&T CallVantage, the winners of the firm’s previous study in June 2005. The survey found that while all providers sampled have improved the percentage of completed calls, with an average of 99.1% of calls completed versus 96.9% in the June survey, the audio quality of conversations over VoIP phones continues to lag behind that of traditional phones. Specifically, the survey noted that audio delay continues to be a problem for most VoIP service providers. Audio delay occurs when the time period between the speaker saying something and the receiver hearing it is such that it becomes difficult to converse. According to the survey, another important factor affecting VoIP service quality was the user’s underlying broadband network. Among the five network providers tested, Verizon DSL was found to be the most reliable network carrier and Time Warner Cable Modem service was found to provide the best audio clarity for calls made with all VoIP service providers measured in the study. For more information on the Keynote survey, click here.
WIRELESS WATCH
BRATZ Mobile Phone Coming to Wal-Mart, But Is It a Good Deal? - Toymaker MGA Entertainment, maker of the popular BRATZ brand dolls, and prepaid mobile phone operator Ztar Mobile announced last week that they will soon be marketing a new BRATZ-branded prepaid mobile phone at Wal-Marts nationwide. The phones, which come pre-loaded with 50 minutes of airtime and BRATZ-themed wallpapers, ringtones, and screensavers, will retail for $69.99. Additional airtime minutes can be purchased for 20¢ per minute and minutes expire after 120 days if they are not used. If accounts are refilled within 120 days, customers carry their unused balance over. For consumers, the deal is not a bad one overall. The $69.99 entry price is about $20 more than would be paid for a comparable handset from TracFone or T-Mobile. However, the 120-day expiration is better than the industry average of 60-90 days. With typical prepaid plans, getting less than 20¢ per minute for calling requires a daily fee (anywhere from 25¢ to $1.00 per day). Prepaid plans without a daily fee typically charge 25¢ or more per minute, unless a large bucket of minutes (200 or more) is purchased at once. In this regard, the BRATZ phone is a decent bet for parents who want their younger children to have a wireless phone without breaking the bank. For more information on the BRATZ phone, click here.
SCAM WATCH
Watch Out for the Wirefly.com Rebate Runaround – An article on MSNBC.com caught our eye recently and we thought we would share it with you (click here to read the full article). The article describes the cell phone website Wirefly.com, run by InPhonic, an online retailer of wireless phones and service plans for most of the major American wireless carriers. In short, Wirefly claims to offer many of the most popular handsets (including Motorola’s RAZR phone) for free, after an “exclusive rebate.” Sound too good to be true? It probably is. According to complaints with the Better Business Bureau (whose DC branch revoked InPhonics’ membership in 2005 after numerous unanswered complaints), Wirefly’s rebate policy requires customers to jump through any number of hoops to even qualify for the rebates, including requiring customers to wait until a 30-day window 6 months in to the service term to mail the rebate paperwork. What’s worse, the company seems to be very adept at finding small errors in the rebate paperwork in order to justify denying the rebate requests. In general, TRAC recommends that wireless users deal directly with their chosen wireless service provider instead of through 3rd party retailers, as these types of complaints are heard all too often. When taking advantage of a rebate, be sure to read all the paperwork BEFORE purchasing the phone. If you have questions about the rebate that a salesperson or customer service representative with the wireless provider cannot answer satisfactorily, don’t buy the phone. Try and get a record of all communications with the company in writing and keep records on your own of any calls to customer service, including the date and time of the call, the name and employee number of any person at the company you speak with, and an event or ticket number for your complaint. To read more about InPhonic’s dismal track record with the Better Business Bureau, click here.
TRAC AND YOU
Simon Discusses Free Directory Assistance – TRAC chairman Samuel A. Simon appeared on the WCBS TV (Channel 2) news in Chicago on Wednesday night in a segment about free directory assistance services. According to Simon, many popular free directory assistance providers, such as 1-800-FREE-411 and 1-800-411-METRO may not always provide the same level of service since they use different companies to actually provide the directory assistance service. When TRAC tested out these services, we found that sometimes the call was routed to a live operator and other times to an automated system. In addition, we were not always offered a free connection for the call, as many of these services advertise.
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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