Maybe being able to include the price of a handset in your monthly bill isn’t such a great thing — well, not if a carrier keeps right on billing you for the same amount after you’ve paid the device off, which is surprisingly common, according to numbers coming out of the United Kingdom.
Consumer group Citizens Advice found that “one in three customers on ‘handset-inclusive’ mobile phone contracts continue to pay beyond the minimum term of their contract,” the U.K. Telegraph reported. “While some providers will automatically reduce the cost of the monthly fee after the handset has effectively been paid off, others do not.” It reportedly can take citizens as long as six months to realize that their device billing is incorrect, by which time they’ve shelled out nearly $270 dollars extra — and more elderly customers are impacted by improper device billing than people under the age of 35, CA found.
People who don't switch contracts are paying £22 extra each month on average for a phone they’ve already bought https://t.co/24HZVSgFNi
— CitizensAdvice (@CitizensAdvice) October 20, 2017
Government regulators are taking note, including the minister of digital:
Big welcome to @CitizensAdvice call for better billing info for mobiles. We should be told when handset’s paid off https://t.co/dPWeBlG9b7
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) October 20, 2017
Does the U.S. have a similar problem? I’m not sure how we’d even know.
Elsewhere in the Twitterverse, T-Mobile US CEO John Legere has never seen a Verizon quarterly call that he couldn’t snark on (before, during and after). A few selections:
🔴 @Verizon’s been struggling for a few years & even succumbed to a mid-life crisis, buying up old ‘90s icons. I mean, are you sure you guys are OK?? We gave you the playbook for how to succeed & you STILL messed it up. How is that even possible?!? pic.twitter.com/jcK4CxLx6H
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 18, 2017
🔴 You’ve tried everything, @Verizon. You even created Go90 – your own weird “millennial” version of Netflix. But news flash: it still isn’t working. I guess you’ll try something else bc you (& @ATT) never learn…even after 5 yrs of #Uncarrier. You just don’t get it. pic.twitter.com/5tbakdWSmg
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 18, 2017
🔴 And to recap it all, just watch this video. Can’t wait for @verizon earnings tomorrow! #WeWontStop pic.twitter.com/RFLWLbMvLf
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 18, 2017
In other shade: Qualcomm vs. Intel on chip size.
https://twitter.com/sherifhanna/status/920359092152971265
In a bright spot on mobile security, a new survey from CTIA finds that consumers are starting to think harder about how secure their smartphones and connections are, and adopting new behaviors.
New survey shows America’s wireless consumers continue to adopt security measures for mobile devices #NCSAM https://t.co/26sKSdPwb9
— CTIA (@CTIA) October 20, 2017
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure took a little trip down memory lane this week:
1/3 20yrs ago, my life changed forever when Allan Mota, Sergio Martinez (RIP), Dave Peterson & I founded a little company called @Brightstar pic.twitter.com/EhN1cqeVTP
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) October 17, 2017
And for Friday fun: it’s not exactly rock ’em sock ’em robots, but it’s pretty close:
The world's first giant #robot duel. #robotics #ai #iot #robots #automation pic.twitter.com/SeyTqkimZ1
— Mike Quindazzi ✨ (@MikeQuindazzi) October 20, 2017
