Monthly Archives: September 2016

AT&T, Home Phone

AT&T Charges Poor Customers Heavily for Super Slow Internet Services

Leave a comment

AT&T

AT&T, one of the premiere lifeline phone service providers in the USA, does not seem to be having good press in the market recently. On one side, T-Mobile is leaving no stone unturned to put AT&T in its sight, has strongly responded to AT&T’s decision to shut down its 2G services for IoT customers. Now the company seems to have decided to shoot itself in the foot by deciding to charge money to its lifeline phone service (low income) users for slow broadband services.

Let’s See What Issue Actually Is!

The Federal Communications Commission has clearly directed AT&T to ensure discounted high speed internet for lifeline phone service subscribers in Texas. The FCC mainly wants discounted high speed internet service for those users or families who are legally eligible for seeking food stamps.  In contrast to abiding by the directions issued by FCC (The Federal Communications Commission), AT&T is exploiting a loophole in the federal directive to perfection for refusing to deliver discounted high speed internet service to any qualified lifeline phone service subscriber.

What Else?

AT&T, a lifeline phone service provider for low income households in the USA, seems to be landing itself in hot water because the company had agreed to the discounts in order to receive the FCC’s approval for its DirectTV Purchase. In accordance to NDIA (National Digital Inclusion Alliance), a public interest group, this move has forced the company to ensure it would provide a $5 a month offer for customers to receive internet with speeds up to 3MBPS. The subscribers residing in low income neighborhoods have to pay for full service that also includes $30 introductory fees per month for using slow internet speed.

Now the company is not showing willingness to do so. AT&T has clarified its intention of not expanding its lifeline phone service beyond the terms of FCC directive, confirms NDIA.

AT&T Has Its Own Share of Solid Reasons:

The lifeline phone service provider has its own share of reasons in this regard. Let’s take a good look at all of them below:

  • Their broadband service in low income areas is much slower than one can ever imagine.
  • The program known as “Access from AT&T” hardly charges the amount of $5 or $10 fee on monthly basis. This fee entirely depends on AT&T’s network speed.
  • The lifeline phone services subscribers receiving 3 and 5 MBPS speed are charged $5 whereas those getting more than 5 MBPS speed are charged the amount of $10.

The Story Does Not Just End Here

To add more to it, the company has also confirmed that discounted high speed internet services are not available for the family’s residing in the areas with slow internet speed. This has certainly angered both cities and rural communities where the company has certainly failed very badly to upgrade its residential internet service with more speed. Moreover, the alliance finds AT&T’s response very negative for the users.

Summary:

Data filed with the FCC proves that AT&T is hardly providing more than 1.5 MBPS service in over 21% of the lifeline service blocks in Texas and Florida. Now it will be very interesting to see how the company deals with this self-created fiasco. It will also be interesting to find out whether the company provides discounted high speed internet services to the low income lifeline phone service subscribers or continues to exploit the loophole in an agreement signed with FCC.

Verizon, Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless Lands in Legal Tussle with Consumers over Connectivity Issues in South Jersey

Leave a comment

Verizon Wireless

The wind does not seem to be blowing in favor of Verizon Wireless. The company is already facing strong competition from its rivals in the field of wireless residential phone service, and it’s not turning out to be easy for the company to seek enough room for new growth in said stream.  Now the company seems to be in legal trouble with landline phone service users in South Jersey because of connectivity problems with the company’s cooper-line service.

Consumer Advocates Have Called on BPU:

Because of the reasons mentioned above, many consumers may convince the state to investigate the company’s residential phone service provided to the users in South Jersey. Considering the appearance of over 200 people in the court for a hearing conducted last month on the issue, consumer advocates are once again forced to call on state regulators with the objective of conducting in-depth investigation into the company’s landline phone service provided to consumers of more than a dozen municipalities falling in the region.

Similar kinds of letters had been written to the BPU (The Board of Public Utilities) in this regard. Therefore, SDRC (The State Division of Rate Counsel) and AARP renewed calls to help the agency investigate the way the telecommunication giant takes care of its residential phone service infrastructure in South Jersey.

Stefanie Brand, State Division Rate Counsel, declared the issues as persuasive and can’t be resolved through piecemeal attempts for the purpose of repairing individual copper service lines a case-by-case basis in her letter written to the BPU on 7th September 2016.

Her arguments were supported by AARP officials. They have repeated their call for a full-blown investigation into the quality of service provided in the region, first made in the year 2013.

The Dispute Has Been Going on for Several Years:

All of the landline phone service users hailing from 16 communities and Cumberland County have been experiencing this problem for a number of years. On problem suggests that services on the line contain static and are of very poor quality, especially during bad weather. Most importantly, students are not able to study or complete their homework because of the lack of superfast internet at home.

This does not seem to be the end of the problem. This issue of poor quality residential phone service has also drawn critical attention from state lawmakers.

This Is What the Company Has to Say in Reply:

The company does not provide its superfast connectivity services in the communities. However, the company claims to have invested over $100 billion in order to ameliorate its dial-up connectivity and residential home telephone services for the last two years. Most importantly, the company professionals have been working hard in order to solve specific issues identified by the customers at the hearing conducted during the month of August 2016 in tiny Estelle Manor. The company also claimed that they are working on developing additional initiatives for dealing successfully with the concerns of its valuable customers.

Now the company is hoping that there will not be any requirement of legal proceedings in this case. Since most of the issues are being taken care of by the company, the actions taken in this regard will confirm it.

Summary;

As for users, they don’t seem satisfied with the company’s residential phone services and its promises. They have approached professional legal consumer advocates who requested BPU to look into the matter. In addition to that, this problem has also been raised to SDRC and AARP officials. They have echoed the voice of users facing connectivity problems. On the other hand, the company does not seem to be getting on the back-foot at all. Instead, the company has clarified that they are looking into the problem deeply to improve the consumer experience with their services. In simple words, this legal battle between the users and the company seems to be getting bigger. As for the result, only time will tell.

Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile to Offer Wireless Residential Phone Service

Leave a comment

Virgin Mobile Landline

It seems as if Virgin Mobile has decided to rub shoulders with time. The company is now offering new wireless residential phone services. This puts the company well in line with its fellow sub-brands like Fido and Koodo. The company seems to be planning to provide this service in a different way as compared to its industry competitors.  All of the new residential phone service (wireless) users will be provided this service both on a month-to-month as well as on a two-year contract basis.

What else is in store?

This news is yet to be officially updated by the company on its website. However, Bell’s budget carrier is expected to stock its ZTE residential phone adaptor at around $39.99. This price is almost the same as offered by FIDO and Koodo. As far as Virgin Mobile is concerned, the company has a plan to provide an option to all its new residential phone service consumers to get the adapter at the price of $0 down on a contract of two years.

In both cases, the monthly cost will remain around $20 for its current and new consumers. This expected cost is very much similar to the monthly cost charged by Koodo. There is just one difference between the two- Koodo is known for providing Canada-wide calling to users while Virgin Mobile offers unlimited calling to the users residing in the United States for an unspecified “limited time”.

This is What Fido Offers:

In comparison to the service provided by Koodo and Virgin Mobile, Fido, Virgin’s fellow sub-brand, is known for offering its plan at the cost of $18 per month. This plan is for unlimited Canada-wide calling. Fido offers another plan that is for customers seeking services for both unlimited Canada and US-wide calling. As for price, it is $20 for existing customers whereas new residential phone service users will have to pay the amount of $30.

Some Additional Features on Offer:

This service is likely to be full of many features. Virgin Mobile is offering many additional features also. Customers will be allowed to add these additional features on a monthly basis. Virgin is offering an unlimited calling plan at the cost of $15 per month to help customers make phone calls to China and Hong Kong. 1000 minutes at the cost of $20 per month to call in India is also a part of this service.

Taking everything into consideration, Virgin Mobile’s decision to come in line with its fellow-sub brands like Koodo and Fido clearly seems to be a strategic move to ensure new growth in the wireless home phone sector. Virgin’s industry competitors like Verizon and Sprint are already making strategic decisions in this regard. All this clearly indicates that all of the companies are now actively paying attention to the wireless home phone service sector in the United States.

Summary:

Finally, Virgin Mobile’s US based new residential phone service users will be able to enjoy an unlimited calling plan at very affordable rates. Moreover, this will save a lot of money for the users who don’t want to pay too much. Let’s just wait for this service to be launched by the company. It will be very interesting to see what the company is actually offering to the customers to stay in the game.

Verizon

Verizon Wireless is Soon Introducing One Talk Call Forwarding Service to Wireless Phones for Prepaid Local Phone Service Subscribers

Leave a comment

Verizon Wireless

In the wake of an effort to seek new ways towards innovation and new growth, Verizon Wireless has shifted its focus to advertising about its new One Talk Plan. The company has decided to put its own brand name to this service with an objective of cementing it in the marketplace with its own name. Most of the industry experts and insiders are recognizing this decision of Verizon Wireless as directed toward prepaid local phone service subscribers.

What is One Talk?

Let’s get familiar with One Talk before digging deep into this latest news and a lot more things relevant to it.

One Talk will be a virtue for all of the businessmen struggling to communicate with their business partners, investors and customers at crucial times. Using One Talk service from Verizon Wireless will let businessmen and other prepaid local phone service subscribers receive important phone calls on their office phone, wireless phone or even on their residential phone service.

The introduction of this new technical innovation in the digital arsenal of Verizon is particularly directed towards ensuring that the users don’t miss their important calls.

Who will be Benefitted with Verizon’s One Talk Service?

Plenty of businessmen, employees and self-employed people tele-commute for work purposes. It helps them attend every important business or family phone call. All of the businesses and self-employed people like artists, plumbers etc., will be able to satisfy their customers immediately using their prepaid local phone service provided to them.

In one way or another, customers will also benefit from One Talk as they will not have to wait for ages for you to get back home/office for a return call. In one way or another, One Talk will be a great help for all of the professionals out there paying for flights to visit customers or prospects for adding to sales and income of their business or the company they work for.

Most importantly, this service will prove to be a kind of lifeline for home phone service for customers of Verizon wireless.

The Cost of Verizon One Talk Lifeline for Home Phone Service:

Verizon’s prepaid local phone service subscribers will love this easily affordable service. It is expected that subscribers will need not pay more than $25 on monthly basis. This service will cost only for call forwarding. One Talk will be compatible with the residential phone service of all of the companies like Verizon Communication, AT&T, Centurylink and any other company providing call forwarding service.

All in all, Verizon’s One Talk service will allow prepaid local phone service subscribers to get their important phone calls because it will ring at your office, mobile or residential phone service at the same time.

The Challenge for Verizon Wireless:

It will not be easy for Verizon Wireless to provide value to all of its dedicated customers and prospects through this lifeline for home phone service business. The main credit should be given to multiple solutions already present in the market. Moreover, some of the technical problems mentioned below are equally responsible:

  • It is a kind of VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Service instead of a traditional wire-line residential home phone
  • It needs a perfect internet connection in place.
  • This service will not work without a battery backup in place if the electricity breaks down.
  • Verizon is transforming itself from a traditional local phone service provider to an IP service provider. As a result, customers will have to get a new desk phone handset for Voice over Internet Protocol calls.

It will be very interesting to see how the company seeks new growth in the market with this technical lifeline for home phone service business in the form of innovation.