Verizon To Explain Smartphone Fees
Federal regulators have asked Verizon Wireless to explain why it doubled the fee customers pay for terminating smartphone contracts.
The Federal Communications Commission made the request in a letter Friday to the largest U.S. mobile telephone provider. The letter from Ruth Milkman, chief of the FCC’s wireless bureau, and Mark Stone, acting chief of the consumer and governmental affairs bureau, was distributed by e-mail.
Four senators including Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, introduced legislation Thursday to limit the fees. Verizon Wireless raised the fee Nov. 15 from $175 for customers purchasing a smartphone with a one-or two-year service agreement, the senators said in a news release.
"Smartphones quickly became a major part of our business and cost us a whole lot more," Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said.
The FCC is also asking the carrier about $1.99 data access fees that have appeared on the bills of customers who don’t have data plans but accidentally initiate data access by hitting a button on their phones. Verizon says that as of a few months ago, it doesn’t charge when a customer starts a data service then quickly turns it off.
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