In long-awaited anticipation, AT&T released a press report this morning stating and when and how it would implement the Prorated Early Termination Fee policy it announced last fall. We have wondered exactly what the policy would be, and as a whole I am pleased by the announcement.

"AT&T today announced a new approach to early termination fees (ETFs) that provides greater flexibility for wireless customers.

Beginning on May 25, the company's new and renewing wireless customers who enter into one- or two-year service agreements will no longer be required to pay a single, flat early termination fee. Instead, that fee, which is $175, will be progressively lowered by $5 during each month, every month, for the term of the contract. (The single, flat ETF will continue to apply to new and renewing customers who enter into one- or two-year service agreements prior to May 25.)"

This is wonderful news for any customer who worries about signing a contract because they feel locked in for 2 years. What this means is that after you have been a year through your contract, it will only cost you $115 to get out; with 6 months left, only $85 (If I'm making the calculations correctly).

Sadly, customers who currently have contracts cannot take advantage of the prorated fee, but as of May 25 any customers who sign for new contracts will have this policy to take advantage of.

The full report is at this link.

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This the same old question that any texter (or someone who doesn't want to be texted, for that matter) has asked: why am I being charged for text messages coming into my phone? Everyone knows the real answer for it - to make money, of course! But is it fair? I don't think so.

How can it be fair to be charged? You don't get the opportunity to accept or reject the message. When somebody calls you on the phone, you have the ability to reject the call if you don't want to use up your minutes talking to the person calling. Yet, some total stranger can accidentally dial in your digits, meant for some other chatty teenager, and you get charged 15 cents. You still get charged, even if you don't open the message at all!

Most wireless carriers will allow you to completely block texting, which is a nice option. However, what if you want to get select texts from family members but don't want a flood of SMS showing up from other random friends? You're hosed. The only real option is to pay a monthly fee to have a certain allotment of texts, so that you don't get slammed with a 15 cent charge each time.

Sometimes customer service departments can help ease the pain of some of these charges, but they won't do it over and over again. Nor is it a good use of valuable time to dispute $2-3 of extra charges on a monthly bill.

There isn't a real point to this post, other than just venting. Businesses must make profit - that's the whole point they exist, after all - but I do feel there should be a more ethical approach to this dilemma. What do you think?

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These are the phones slated to join Sprint's network sometime in the second half of 2008.

Updated July 31, 2008:


Sanyo Katana Eclipse - August 27 2008




Motorola VE20 - No release date set

Motorola I872 - Q2 2008

Motorola Cabo I890 - Q4 2008

Motorola ROKR Z6M - Q3 2008

Motorola Renegade V950

Samsung Z700

HTC Raphael

HTC Diamond


Related Posts:

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And here is the list of phones coming to T-Mobile in the near future.

Blackberry Pearl 2 (8120) with WiFi- April 14, 2008
Nokia 2760
Nokia 5610 Express Music
Motorola Moto Z6w
Samsung T339
Samsung T229
Samsung T419

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Updated July 31, 2008:

Here is the most up-to-date list of upcoming Verizon phones. I will continue to update the list as phones are officially released or launched.


Flip/Clamshell


Motorola Blaze ZN4 - (pictured above) - September 2008
Motorola VU30 - (not pictured) - Unknown - Touted as high end PEBL-like phone.
Nokia 7205 - (not pictured) Early Q3 2008 - 3G, 2 MP camera, stereo bluetooth
Nokia 2605 - (not pictured) Early Q3 2008 - Smaller flip, entry level
Samsung SCH-U430 - Q3 2008 - Basic clamshell with VGA camera and bluetooth.

PDA/Touchscreen



-Blackberry Thunder (above) - October - The new touchscreen BB is coming exclusively to Verizon and Vodafone. Not much else is known about the device yet.
-Samsung SCH-i770 Touchscreen - Q3 2008 - New WinMo 6.1 CDMA/GSM hybrid phone to replace current i830.
-Motorola Napolean Q9 - No release date set
-Verizon Wireless Blitz (prepaid only) - August 8 -

Related posts:
Upcoming Sprint Phones
Up and Coming Verizon Phones
15 Ways to Extend Battery Life
Presenting the LG EnV2 from Verizon

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Here is the outlook for the next few months at AT&T.

Updated August 4, 2008.




Motorola V9x

Motorola W760R - Quad band, 3G, 2.0 MP camera, rugged, replacing V365

Nokia 3555 - Already available on T-Mobile. 3G but otherwise unimpressive.




Samsung A237 - entry level clamshell; likely to have Quad-band GSM/EDGE with camera and bluetooth (photo courtesy PhoneArena)




LG CB630 "Invision" - August? - new LG candybar TV phone. Looks very similar to the Samsung Access.

Rumored Phones

Samsung Blackjack 3

Samsung Omnia

AT&T Tilt 2

Pantech Duo 2



Related Posts:

Presenting the new Jawbone
Look at AT&T's roadmap

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Here we have the new Motorola Z9 coming to AT&T. This looks like a pretty sweet phone - this will be the first non PDA device to offer AT&T Navigator, aka Telenav. Are we seeing the beginning of the era of GPS in standard GSM cell phones? We can only hope! Perhaps this will soon be followed up by GPS kid-tracking systems that you can currently find on CDMA carriers such as Verizon or Sprint.

The Z9 is slated to arrive in stores April 1. Let's see if that comes true.

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As you can tell, I'm big on the nifty gadgets. The more you can use your cell phone for, the better. Latest in the weird gadget dept is trapster.com, which utilizes geopositioning to inform you, the driver, of either common or brand-new speedtraps. Granted, it's not as reliable as the regular radar or laser detectors you'd normally use in your car, at least it can help you know what parts of the road are most likely to have a law enforcement officer waiting for you to show up in a hurry.

Check out the Cnet article.

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