Updated May 22, 2008:

The world of Telecom sees no shortage of lawsuits. Each cellular provider in the US gets slapped with suits. Typically the suits come in the following forms:

1. Patent Infringement - We saw this recently with the iPhone and several companies and individuals trying to sue Apple/AT&T for violating patents.

2. Telecom Rivalry - Whether it is Verizon suing Sprint, Sprint suing AT&T, or whatever the case, US telecom companies tend to sue each other for various reasons.

3. Class Action - Individuals get fed up with hidden charges, contracts, and other injustices that telecom has been getting away with. These individuals find it easy to get others to team up with and sue these companies. Some do it for money, some do it out of principle.

My goal is to provide you with some of the current lawsuits going on in the world of Telecom. I will try to keep this as up-to-date as possible. It’s hard to keep up with them all, but several of them are worth reading up on. Each suit contains a link to details on what exactly the suit is all about. Enjoy!

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. - Class Action Suit against unauthorized texting. Customers upset at carriers for not “offering its customers the opportunity to avoid such charges by opting out of text messaging and refusing to disable its customers’ text messaging service.”

T-Mobile - May 2008 - Sued over charging pay-per-use for incoming SMS and not blocking SMS if customer requests it

Sprint - May 2008 - Sued over unauthorized mobile content, such as ringtones, sports scores and weather reports

Sprint - May 2008 - Sued by workers over mismanagement of pension plans

Verizon and Alltel - April 2008 - Violation of Fair Credit Reporting Act, falsely report disputed debt on credit report

Sprint - May 2008 - Sued by Sprint affiliate iPCS over Clearwire/WiMax merger

Verizon - May 2008 - Sued by parents of 14-year old girl assaulted by man she met through mobile social network

Sprint - April 2008 - Sued by Verizon for not paying $10 million in interconnection charges

Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T - March 2008 - Class Action suing against text message gambling for shows such as “Deal or No Deal”.

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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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Previously, on prepaid: the options....
I talked about some of the independant prepaid companies, Virgin Mobile and Tracfone. This time around I will mention each of the Big 3 and their prepaid options.

Verizon:
InPulse - the PAYG plan offers Unlimited IN Network calling, Unlimited Night Calling, and 10 cents/min to everyone else; you get these perks at the cost of a 99 cent per day access charge.
EasyPay - Verizon's PYP plan offers two different rates, 350 minutes for $50 and 700 for $70; each rate offers Unlimited IN calling and 3000 nights/weekend minutes.

AT&T GoPhone:
PAYG - two choices. Similar to Verizon, you can get Unlimited calling within the network and 10 cents/min to everyone else at a cost of $1 daily access charge. You only get charged the dollar on those days you use the phone. Or, you can opt for a flat rate of 25 cents/min, no extra perks. The PAYG plans recently added text packages, and also offers rollover balance (when you refill your account, your previous balance will carry over with the refill).

PYP - AT&T offers four different packages, the perks increasing along with the price. 29.99/month gets you 200 minutes total; 39.99/month gives 300 minutes anytime and 1000 nights/weekends; 49.99/month delivers 400 minutes anytime and unlimited nights/weekends; and finally, 69.99/month promises 650 minutes anytime, unlimited nights/weekends, and unlimited mobile to mobile. Each package offers rollover. If you run out of minutes, you can add more before the end of the month.

T-Mobile:
It looks like T-Mo offers PAYG. The perks come with the Gold Rewards; once you buy a $100 refill card you become a Gold Rewards customer, where no matter what kind of refill card you get from then on you receive 15% more minutes and your minutes won't expire for a year. No text packages, but they cost 10 cents to send and 5 cents to receive; sidekick packages are also available for a dollar a day.

If you have family and/or friends who use Verizon or AT&T, it's probably best to get a PAYG plan with those services simply because they offer unlimited mobile to mobile, which can help save you a lot of money on extra minutes.

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With the global success of the RAZR, Motorola decided to take advantage of that model and come out with other types of phones. In this instance, they took the razr and made it a slider. T-Mobile brought the Z3 into the North American market. The Z3 comes with a 2 MP camera, bluetooth, A2DP, voice dial, quad-band world support, and music player (though without a dedicated key).

Reviews:
Laptop Mag
Cnet
InfoSyncWorld
MobileBurn






Resources:
T-Mobile
Motorola Support

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This slider phone from T-Mobile is a multimedia user's ideal; 1.3 MP camera and microSD slot so you can hold up to 2 GB of external storage for music. Sadly it only holds 5 MB of internal storage so the MicroSD is a must-have. Also comes with Bluetooth and voice dialing. This is also a myFavs phone on T-Mobile's network.

Reviews:
Specs
Cnet (8.3/10)
InfoSyncWorld
GSMArena
MobileBurn





Resources:
T-Mo Support
Nokia Support

Shopping:
Get the T-Mo Nokia 5300 on Amazon
Get the Nokia 5300 Unlocked

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Some more good stuff from RIM! This more business-friendly full qwerty version of the Pearl comes packed with GPS while sacrificing the camera. The GPS allows us to enjoy the TeleNav system without the need of a Bluetooth receiver. The 8800 originally came out with AT&T but T-Mo has picked it up as of April 2007.

Reviews:
Laptop Mag
GSM Arena
MobileBurn (inc. pics)
PhoneArena
Cnet (7.7/10)
Boy Genius Report
MobileTechReview

Resources:
8800 Marketing Site
RIM official support
Free Downloads and Forums
AT&T Support Site
T-Mobile Support

Shopping:
Buy the 8800 with AT&T
Need your Blackberry to do even more? Click here to get more software!

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The Blackberry Pearl 8100 for T-Mo and AT&T is the first in a new generation of Blackberries: geared toward consumers, rather than focusing on businesses. The pearl is the first GSM blackberry in North America to feature a clever trackball on the front instead of on the side, MicroSD with mp3 player, and 1.3 mp camera. It also enables the user to connect to GPS using a Bluetooth receiver, giving the Pearl the ability to use TeleNav.

There is an amazing amount of stuff that the Pearl can do, and the small size makes it very easy to handle as both a phone AND as a PDA.

Reviews:
Picture Gallery (BGR)
Specs and Review (PhoneArena)
GSM Arena Reviews
PhoneScoop
Cnet
Blackberrypearl.com
Laptop Mag

Resources:
AT&T Support
T-Mo Support
Official RIM site

Shop:
Get the Black Pearl with AT&T
Buy the Red Pearl from AT&T!
Get the Black Pearl with T-Mobile
Here's the White Pearl with T-Mobile
Click here to get more programs for your Pearl!

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The Nokia 6126 for AT&T and 6133 for T-Mo are innovative new clamshells from Nokia. They are great for the lazies who want a flip phone but don't want to use the extra energy to actually flip it open. The solution: throw on a button on the outside of the phone that will flip it open for you!

But there's more to this nice little handset. It offers MicroSD, MP3 player, megapixel camera, bluetooth and quad-band support for use around the world. The 6133 also adds FM radio.

Reviews:
Cnet 6126 Review
Cnet 6133 Review
PhoneScoop
Nokia Phone Blog
GSMArena-6133

Resources:
AT&T Support
T-Mo Support
Nokia Official Site

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The Nokia 6103 (T-Mobile) and 6102i (AT&T) are upgrades to the 6101 and 6102; these are all some of Nokia's first attempts at a flip phone. Notable features include VGA camera, support for MP3 ringtones, infrared, FM radio, and tri-band support. The later upgrades include bluetooth and a zoom function on the camera. The 6103 also has MyFaves compatibility for T-Mo.

Reviews:
Cnet - 6102
Cnet - 6101
PhoneScoop
PhoneArena

Resources:
AT&T Support
T-Mobile Support
Nokia Site

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Okay, next up is one of the latest in a long line of basic Nokia bar-style phones, the 6030. Essentially this phone is the same as some of its predecessors, with relatively few minor changes. The 6030 still lacks any sort of camera or bluetooth but is a decent inexpensive phone with AT&T and T-Mobile.

Reviews:
GSM Arena
PhoneScoop
CNet

Resources:
AT&T Support
T-Mobile Support
Nokia Official Site

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This next version of the RAZR became the first GSM version that supports a music player with iTunes, MicroSD, and 1.2 MP digital camera. Other than that, it's still the same RAZR that you have grown to either love or hate.

Reviews:
Cnet
PhoneScoop
GSM Arena (specs and reviews)

Resources:
Cingular support
T-Mobile support (Dolce & Gabbana)

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It's the RAZR. The original Motorola RAZR. Need I say more? Bring on the links!
Reviews
Cnet
Phonescoop
Phone Arena (Specs and First impressions)

Resources
Cingular Support
T-Mobile Support
Motorola Official Site

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The Motorola KRZR is the next of the RAZR-type phones, a great skinny flip phone that is carried by each of the major wireless networks. MicroSD, Bluetooth, MP3, and 2 MP camera are just some of the features of this clever little device.

Reviews
Cnet (T-Mobile)
Phonescoop
Phone Arena (lots of pics and in-depth study)

Resources
T-Mobile Support Site
Cingular Support Site
Motorola's Official Site

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