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There’s been a good deal of hubub surrounding Verizon’s decision to up their early termination fee (ETF) for “advanced devices” to a whopping $350. The increased ETF was met with consumer outrage that eventually led to the FCC issuing public statements about how it’s not cool to charge customers an ETF that is meant to help with sales commissions and store expenses. The good news is that all this talk about Verizon’s unfair ETF policy has apparently prompted the carrier to ease up on its ETF requirements. Verizon has removed 10 high-end feature phones from its “advanced devices” list, freeing those phones of the burden of an ETF that could cost more than the phones themselves.
We haven’t heard anything from the FCC, nor Verizon, on what prompted the shift in policy, but it’s a good bet that things were getting a little too hot for Verizon’s legal team. It’s got to be hard trying to justify a non-smartphone as an “advanced device” just because it has a touchscreen.
Whatever the reason, feature phone buyers going to Verizon Wireless will be happy to hear that their devices will only be tied down with the lesser $175 ETF.
Check out Verizon’s “advanced devices” list here.
[Via: Engadget]
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
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Steven
