Goodby Blogger

Well switching from FTP to blogspot does a number on your blog.. Other problems exist too.. So goodby, i now use wordpress which i can host both the blog and the CMS. http://www.jholdaway.com

Adventures in Wireless-land

My adventure starts with the upcoming end to my free service from IMMI. At the time it sounded like such a boon to have free unlimited wireless and internet phone service. However I ended up with a broken phone, locked phones galore and a new wireless world. When I left Cingular had a $29 "local" plan which included California and Nevada. Well except for the (rare) exception of Utah, CA and NV is all I need. Now I find that Cingular and all the other providers have met in a dark room and raised the lowest price to $39, with the same 450 minutes that my $29 plan had. Also I did enjoy the paragraph

Cingular also imposes the following charges: a Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee of up to $1.25 to help defray its costs incurred in complying with obligations and charges imposed by State and Federal telecom regulation, a gross receipts surcharge, and State and Federal Universal Service charges. The Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee is not a tax or a government required charge.

Is not the price of service (In this case a massive $39), all the business costs including taxes plus a amount of profit? How did it become ok for a business to charge it's customers (who are already taxed by the government on their Cingular bill) for some of its own tax? Despite the beauty of the phone at the top of the page after dealing with Cingular Trying to get a non-contracted transfer (impossible), I learned it would require a 11 month contract. Or a 2 year where I could get a few hundred bucks off the Samsung pictured at the top. Well for 12 months I can get the same few hundred bucks off a LG Chocolate phone (directly above) which is just as cool good. Well I guess I will now be a Verizon customer. And I must say I fear the same fees, restrictions, and locking policies will be in place at Verizon.