Give ’em prepay

It’s happening again. “It” is the overwhelming feeling I occasionally get to defend the wireless industry and the way it treats its customers.
But the news last week that senators were going after wireless carriers again for their early termination fees as part of the bigger consumer bill of rights raised my ire. (Sidenote: Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that politicians think it’s cool to link a sacred document like the Bill of Rights to a pet project?)
I have tackled the ETF topic before, but I’ll repeat: these fees are generally equal to the handset subsidies consumers are more than willing to accept when they sign up for service-only later to complain to anyone who will listen how unfair it is that they should be forced to pay it back if they decide to break the contract they signed.
Verizon Wireless has tried to nip the issue in the bud by implementing pro-rated ETFs last year, which was conveniently copied by No. 1 rival AT&T Mobility last week. This also seems like a good issue to tackle for whoever takes the helm at Sprint Nextel; the industry’s No. 3 carrier has its work cut out for it in turning around consumer perception of its operating habits.
Recently I was walking around a local discount retailer and was struck again on how many wireless choices are out there for consumers.
Anyone can walk into a store, plunk down $15 for a prepaid handset and walk out paying 10 cents per minute for calls across the country. No credit check, no contract, no ETFs, no questions asked. That’s right, I said no ETFs. And the 10 cents per minute is probably less than people are currently paying for actual minutes used in their postpaid bucket plans.
I almost bought a handset to prove to my unbelieving eyes that it was so simple.
Now I’m sure most senators would not lower themselves to entering such retail locations, unless it’s election season, but I would think that they could get one of their minions to take a stroll down to the local mega-store and file some report on what choices are really out there for wireless consumers. They might be surprised.
And while they are there, maybe they could pick me up a mega-bottle of aspirin.