Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FTCR Sues T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular for 'Locking' Phones

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 02:45:46 -0400

FTCR Sues T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular for 'Locking' Phones
News Source: The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights
Published Date: June 07, 2004

Editor's Summary:

A consumer watchdog group is suing three of the nation’s top wireless
companies over an alleged "handset-locking" scheme designed to prevent
customers from switching companies.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights group filed the lawsuit
in Los Angeles Superior Court against T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular,
alleging the companies insert software in the phones they sell that
disable the handsets from being used on competing systems.

According to the lawsuit, mobile phones sold by T-Mobile, AT&T and
Cingular are designed to allow users to swap a chip inside their phone
that identifies them as a customer of a particular network. Consumers
that want to take advantage of the Federal Communications Commission's
recent "number portability" rule by going to another company and keeping
the same phone number would also be able to keep their phones under this
built-in technology.

However, the complaint alleges that the three wireless companies have
inserted software inside the phones they sell to prevent such
interchangeability. Thus, a dissatisfied customer of one company must be
willing to buy a new phone in order to change carriers, FTCR said in a
statement. The result, the consumer group said, is that many consumers
are forced to stay with a wireless company whose service they find
unsatisfactory, competition is frustrated, and usable phones clog our
landfills.

"Like the 'early termination fees' that cell phone companies charge
dissatisfied customers, this handset locking scheme is designed to force
unhappy consumers to stay with a cell phone company no matter how poor
the service is," said consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, FTCR's
co-counsel.

Last October, FTCR sued Nextel for charging its customers $2.50 to get a
fully itemized bill, which it contends, makes it nearly impossible for
consumers to determine if they are being billed correctly.

"Indeed, the new policy made it nearly impossible for Nextel customers
to detect charges for four phony text messages Nextel transmitted to
every California customer that month," FTCR said in a statement.

The FTCR lawsuits are brought under California's powerful consumer
protection statute known as the Unfair Competition Law that law
authorizes members of the public to challenge illegal or unfair
practices

http://www.legalnewswatch.com/news_362.html

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