Get smart on latest wireless options - USA Today

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAYThe iPhone helped reinvent the category in 2007. Some 50 million iPhones have been sold, fueled by the App Store, a collection of about 300,000 software programs, for free and for sale, that enhance the iPhone. Apps include everything from airline schedules and calendars to games. There's even a program that lets you plug in your electric guitar and have the iPhone replicate an amplifier.

"The experience on the iPhone is still the best," says Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research. "The range of apps and things you can do with it and the amount of information that is out there helping you learn about interesting and new things you can do with the iPhone is almost overwhelming."

The major drawback with the iPhone is the phone service. Consumers complain about dropped calls with the iPhone, and Consumer Reports declined to recommend it earlier this year because of problems with its antenna. And AT&T, the iPhone's only U.S. wireless carrier for now, was just rated dead last among the big four carriers, by CR. The biggest problem: dropped calls.

Verizon (No. 1 in CR's rankings) is expected to add the iPhone to its offerings soon. "I tell everyone who's interested in buying an iPhone, 'Wait until next year for Verizon,' " says Jessica Foust, a supervising producer for the TopTenReviews website, which lists the iPhone at No. 1 and No. 3 (for the older iPhone 3GS model.) "The network is so much better."

Android

Google's line of state-of-the-art smartphones is the fastest growing. By next year, they'll become the most popular, some tech analysts predict. An estimated 300,000 Android phones are being activated daily, up from 100,000 daily in August, Google says.

Manufacturers love Android because Google offers the software to them free. Verizon has the Motorola Droid X and HTC Droid Incredible. Sprint offers the HTC Evo 4G. AT&T sells the Samsung Captivate. T-Mobile markets the G2. All have similar interfaces.

Adding to the confusion: Last week Google announced the Nexus S from Samsung, coming Thursday to T-Mobile. The Nexus S has a 4-inch screen and is the only Android phone running the latest version of Android software, called Gingerbread. The new software allows users to make mobile payments directly from the phone, without having to pull out a credit card.

The app store, called Android Market, offers 100,000 apps compared with Apple's 300,000.

TopTenReviews ranks the Droid X as the No. 2 smartphone because of its large 4.3-inch touch-screen, 8-megapixel camera and its ability to capture 720p high-definition video. "It's the phone to get if you don't want the iPhone," says Foust.

BlackBerry

The dean of business phones, BlackBerry is "still a really good platform, especially if you're a business user," says Golvin. "It's the best solution for e-mail, calendar and managing your day."

BlackBerry phones have come a long way from the basic phone/e-mail combo. They now have cameras, full Web browsers, qwerty keyboards and touch-screens. Like Apple and Android, BlackBerry has apps, too, though far fewer. There are both traditional BlackBerrys with a small keyboard and touch-screen BlackBerrys. The Torch, No. 5 on the TopTenReviews list, has both a qwerty keyboard and a virtual touch-screen keyboard. "It's the best of both worlds," Foust says.

Windows

The Windows phones of the past have been overhauled. A new line of Windows Phone 7 smartphones arrived this fall, months behind other smartphone competitors but sporting a distinctly different look from iPhone and Android models. A group of tiles highlight the main screen of the Samsung Focus, LG Quantum and HTC Surround. The phones also offer integration with Windows services, such as the Internet Explorer browser, Bing search and Microsoft Office.

Windows "is aimed at getting you where you want to go," says Golvin.

AT&T and T-Mobile offer the first Windows Phone 7 models, but Sprint and Verizon will follow with more models next year. Windows has only about 1,000 apps available for the phone. "They have a lot of catch-up to do, but it's not too late," Golvin says.

WANT TO GIVE A PHONE AS A GIFT?

In days of old, new and renewing wireless subscribers would get free phones. Now it's a different story with the proliferation of smartphones.

If you want to put the Internet in your pocket, and talk on the phone at the same time, you'll generally have to pay extra for the service (an additional $25 or more for a data plan) and $199 for a new or extended contract.

That makes it harder to buy a smartphone as a gift.

Most carriers ask you to agree to a two-year plan for the recipient, or buy the phone outright — and that's not cheap. AT&T, for instance, sells the iPhone 4 for $599, compared with $199 with a two-year plan.

Here's an alternative: a prepaid plan, which doesn't require a contract. Historically, prepaid plans offered plain vanilla phones, but this year smartphones joined the mix.

•T-Mobile offers the Comet, an Android phone, for $179.99 without a contract. Non-contract plans start at $30 a month with T-Mobile.

•Virgin Mobile has the Intercept, another Android phone, at $299.99. Non-contract plans are $25, $40 or $60 monthly.

•Boost Mobile, owned by Sprint, has the BlackBerry Curve for $199.99 and month-to-month plans are priced at $25 to $50.

•Verizon Wireless is on the high side with three smartphones and three BlackBerry models that don't require a contract. The least expensive model we could find was the BlackBerry Bold at $294.99 and month-to-month plans starting at $64.99.

What if the person you're buying for must have an iPhone or Windows Phone 7 and you don't want to commit to a two-year contract? Opt instead for a gift card for a set amount, say $99 (which will get the iPhone 3GS), and let them negotiate with AT&T after Christmas.

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Verizon Wireless to Pay Millions in Refunds - New York Times

WASHINGTON — Verizon Wireless said on Sunday that it would pay up to $90 million in refunds to 15 million cellphone customers who were wrongly charged for data sessions or Internet use, one of the largest customer refunds by a telecommunications company.

The announcement came in a statement from Verizon Wireless as the company held talks with the Federal Communications Commission about complaints of unauthorized charges and in response to questions about a possible settlement of an F.C.C. investigation into the issue.

Verizon said in its statement that the customers would receive credits from $2 to $6 on their October or November bills or, in the case of former customers, refund checks.

The refunds will be paid to customers who did not have data access plans but who were nevertheless assessed one or more charges of $1.99 because of data exchanges initiated by software built into their phones, or because of charges for inadvertently going online on the phones.

The F.C.C. is likely to press Verizon to pay a penalty for failing to notify customers of the problem, which has been occurring since at least 2007, according to people close to the talks.

Michele Ellison, the chief of the F.C.C. enforcement bureau, said in a statement that the agency was “gratified to see the repayment, but for millions of Americans it’s a day late and a $1.99 short.”

“Getting consumers repaid is just the first step; ensuring this doesn’t happen again comes next,” Ms. Ellison said.

In the last three years, the F.C.C. has received hundreds of complaints from Verizon Wireless customers who said they were charged for data use or Web access at times when their phones were not in use or when they mistakenly pushed a button that activated the phone’s Web browser.

Beginning in 2009, The New York Times and The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, among other publications, reported that customers had been complaining of the charges but had often been ignored by Verizon Wireless. On certain flip phones sold by Verizon, a directional arrow, when pushed, automatically would initiate the phone’s Web browser.

Even if customer immediately canceled the action, they were often charged $1.99 for Internet access, according to the complaints, some of which were detailed by David Pogue of The Times on his blog, Pogue’s Posts.

Customers who contacted Verizon about the charges said that the company had often refused to reverse the charges or discouraged them from blocking the data service on their phones.

Verizon maintained that it had responded appropriately. “Verizon Wireless values our customer relationships, and we always want to do the right thing for our customers,” Mary Coyne, deputy general counsel for Verizon Wireless, said in a statement. “When we identify errors, we remedy them as quickly as possible. Our goal is to maintain our customers’ trust and ensure they receive the best experience possible.”

But Verizon initially played down the issue, telling the F.C.C. in December 2009 that it did not charge customers who had inadvertently started their phone’s Web browser and immediately ended the session.

That month, the F.C.C. formally asked Verizon about news reports detailing the charges. In a letter, Kathleen Grillo, a senior vice president for federal regulatory affairs at Verizon, wrote that, “In order to protect customers from minimal, accidental usage charges, Verizon Wireless does not charge users when the browser is launched, and opens to the Verizon Wireless Mobile Web homepage.”

That statement seems to be contradicted by Verizon’s latest statement. “As we reviewed customer accounts, we discovered that over the past several years, approximately 15 million customers who did not have data plans were billed for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate,” the company said on Sunday.

“These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones,” the statement said. “The majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones; others involved accessing the Web, which should not have incurred charges. We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future.”

The F.C.C. began a formal investigation into the unauthorized charges in January. Formal F.C.C. investigations, in which the agency can seek sworn testimony, are usually not disclosed publicly. The F.C.C. said on Sunday that it began looking into the Verizon issue 10 months ago.

In recent weeks, the company and the commission staff have been wrangling over how long the company had been aware of the problem and whether the F.C.C. would initiate a Notice of Apparent Liability, as formal enforcement charges are known.

As an alternative to formal enforcement, the company and the F.C.C. could enter into a consent decree, in which the company would neither admit nor deny the charges, but would agree to make a voluntary payment to settle the issue.

As settlement talks proceeded last week, Verizon indicated to the F.C.C. that it expected that the total amount of the refunds that it would pay to consumer would be about $50 million, according to people close to the settlement talks.

On Sunday, Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, declined to comment on whether the company could narrow the range of $30 million to $90 million in potential payments.

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Verizon Wireless to Pay Up to $90 Million in Refunds - New York Times

WASHINGTON – Verizon Wireless said Sunday it will pay up to $90 million in refunds to 15 million cell phone customers who were wrongly charged for data sessions or Internet use, one of the largest-ever customer refunds by a telecommunications company.

The company’s statement came as Verizon Wireless held talks with the Federal Communications Commission about complaints of unauthorized charges and after questions from about a possible settlement of an F.C.C. investigation into the issue.

Verizon said in its statement that 15 million customers either will receive either credits ranging from $2 to $6 on their October or November bills or, in the case of former customers, refund checks.

In its statement, Verizon Wireless said that the charges affected customers who did not have data usage plans but who were nevertheless billed because of data exchanges initiated by software built into their phones or because of mistaken charges for inadvertent episodes of Web access.

In the last three years, the F.C.C. has received hundreds of complaints from Verizon Wireless customers who said they were charged for data usage or Web access when their phones at times when their phones were not in use or when they mistakenly pushed a button that was preprogrammed to instantly active the phone’s Web browser. Beginning in 2009, The New York Times and The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, among other publications, reported that customers had been complaining of the charges but had often been ignored by Verizon Wireless.

People close to the settlement talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they expected the refunds to total more than $50 million.

“Verizon Wireless values our customer relationships and we always want to do the right thing for our customers,” Mary Coyne, deputy general counsel for Verizon Wireless, said in the statement.

The announcement of the refunds might not end the issue for Verizon. People close to the talks said the F.C.C. had been pressing the company to enter into an agreement to pay a penalty for the unauthorized charges, which would serve as a deterrent for companies that might discover similar circumstances but fail to alert customers in a timely manner.

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