Wireless carrier provider giant Verizon has announced that as of November 15, 2009, those who get a one or two-year service agreement and use an "advanced device" will be subject to a whopping $350 ETF (Early Termination Fee) if they cancel early.

"Advanced Device" in plain English: Smartphone. If using a non-Smartphone, you don’t have to worry about this.

The exact verbiage from Verizon is this:

Beginning 11/15/09, customers purchasing an Advanced Device with a 1 or 2 year service agreement will be subject to an ETF of up to $350 if they disconnect service prior to the minimum term. The $350 ETF will decrease $10 for each month of service completed.

If you’re asking, "So what was the previous ETF?" The answer is $175 – which was already a snow job to begin with.

What’s the justification for the ETF increase? Answers vary. Some say it’s Verizon attempting to keep people from buying a high-end smartphone, immediately cancelling service then hocking the phone on eBay for a quick buck. Others believe it’s Verizon’s way of keeping you locked in, because with an ETF so high it costs too much to cancel.

Whatever the reason, the ETF increase just plain sucks.

In a rather bold statement, the CEO of Verizon Communications basically said that the company simply doesn’t care about landline anymore.

The statement may be bold but I think we all knew in the back of our minds this was coming. Generally speaking, the only reason anybody has a landline phone today is either because a) it’s required in order to use DSL internet service, b) cell phone reception is not available for whatever reason or c) the internet connection is too slow to handle broadband VoIP properly.

If I asked how many of you out there use your wireless phone as your primary phone, chances are the majority of you would say, "I do!"

If I asked how many of you do have a landline, but it’s through your cable company and not the local Telco, chances are also good the majority of you would say, "I do!" (And in fact I’m one of them.)

Why do so many choose wireless and/or cable over Telco?

The first answer is cost.

For basic communications, a prepaid cell phone is cheaper than a POTS landline.

For business-grade phone service, VoIP offerings from your local cable company or broadband make it super-easy to setup. It also costs less and in many instances can have same-day setup.

The second answer is features.

On a basic POTS line you get absolutely nothing in the way of features – not even Caller ID. With the absolute cheapest prepaid cell phone you can buy you can at least see the incoming number of who is calling you. You also get 3-way calling, voicemail and texting besides that.

You will spend $25 a month (not including tax) in most places for a featureless POTS line. If you were to go with Vonage, that same $25 a month gets you unlimited calling anywhere. And I mean anywhere; it includes international calling to over 60 countries with no additional cost to you.

The third answer is value.

Who in their right mind would go with a POTS landline when you can get so much more stuff with wireless or VoIP that’s actually useful for the same price?

At this point the only thing keeping POTS around is the fact that broadband and wireless isn’t available everywhere in the US. In fact there is a study going on right now being paid for by the US government in an attempt to find out what our broadband reach is – because to be honest nobody knows the true answer to that at present.

Do you agree with the Verizon Communications CEO? Is it time to put old-style landline out to pasture?

In Florida (where PCMech is based) the local residents have been complaining for months about the, said politely, less-than-stellar telecom/broadband service by Verizon. Scores of people have reported how poor the customer service is and that the company takes far too long to fix physical issues such as broken phone lines. At this point it’s turned into a safety issue. If you can’t depend on land-line phone communications – the most basic service offered by telecom – how can you trust them?

It turns out that the poor service is not limited to the Sunshine State. Ten other US states have chimed in and said they’ve encounter the same Verizon crap-o-rama as well.

Have you encountered the runaround with Verizon? If so, you’re not alone.

See source link for more details.

[Source: TBO]

Today I called Verizon to find out what my cancellation fee would be (I was thinking of switching carriers) and was told it would be $155 if I canceled.

Ouch.

The sales representative then asked me why I wanted to cancel. I told him cost was a concern and I didn’t feel I was getting my money’s worth.

Then I found out there not one but three ultra-low-cost post-paid plans available. These are listed nowhere on the Verizon Wireless web site (and if they are, please post a link because I couldn’t find them.)

These are absolute basic no-frills plans with next to nothing in them, just so you’re aware. And bear in mind that yes, these are post-paid plans, not pre-paid (more on that in a moment.)

$34.99 a month

• 300 anytime minutes.
• Unlimited nights and weekends
• Free long distance in the continental US

$25.00 a month

• 100 anytime minutes
• 500 night and weekend minutes

$20.00 a month

• 50 anytime minutes
• 100 night and weekend minutes

A post-paid plan for $20 a month? Believe it. Verizon has it. Granted, it’s not even an hour’s worth of talk-time per month, but the fact of the matter is that YES, you can go that cheap on a post-paid plan. If you’re the type that only uses a cell phone for calling AAA and emergencies, this is perfect for you.

But you have to ask for it.

I was only informed of these plans due to the fact I mentioned cost was a concern.

A few notes on pre-paid plans

A PCMech reader once noted that the best way to go cheap with a cell phone is to go T-Mobile and buy a 1000-minute card that’s good for 1 year. And he was right.

It is in fact the absolute lowest you can go price-wise for a cell phone. Assuming you don’t go over the 1000 minutes in the year, you get a little over 75 minutes a month. The cost translates to under 8 bucks a month (not including the price of the phone itself or overages if any.)

I make it no secret that I’m very anti-cell phone. The main reason is because I do remember when the phone companies were literally screwing us blind in phone charges for land-line telecommunications back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Today’s wireless plans are essentially just as bad cost-wise.. and unfortunately no one sees this, but I digress.

I use a wireless phone not because I want to but because I have to, therefore I go cheap. With that said, here’s the lowest cost post-paid plans (meaning contractual agreements and not “pay as you go” pre-paid methods):

Verizon, AT&T, Alltel

Lowest possible price: $39.99 monthly, 2-year contract

You basically get the same features no matter which carrier you choose in this price range. All of them have free mobile-to-mobile (meaning same-carrier) minutes. AT&T is the only one that does NOT offer unlimited nights and weekends. All have 450 “anytime” minutes with the exception of Alltel that has 500.

The best deal in this price range is Alltel, no question. You get 50 more minutes plus the ability to add 1 “My Circle” number that doesn’t count against your 450.

Sprint, T-Mobile

Lowest possible price: $29.99 monthly, 2-year contract

T-Mobile offers 300 “anytime” minutes while Sprint only offers 200 monthly.

Does Sprint sound crappy? Not really when you consider their plan has unlimited nights and weekends while T-Mobile DOES NOT. T-Mobile only offers unlimited weekends but not weeknights and that’s a huge drawback.

Both carriers have the same perks so-to-speak as the higher-cost plans such as voicemail and so on.

. . .

So there you have it. Five major carriers in the USA with 2 of them on the low-low end of the price spectrum.

If you’re the type (like I am) that uses a wireless phone for basic and/or emergencies only, now you know how much it costs.

Verizon (for those unaware) is a humongous telecommunications company with a very large presence in the United States. It’s more or less guaranteed that anyone you talk to in the US knows what Verizon is and what they do.

Verizon’s infrastructure is also humongous (obviously). This means they can offer anything to do with telecommunications. So, if you’re the type that uses one company for everything, Verizon can usually do it.

When I first moved to Florida two years ago I decided to go all-Verizon. Why? Because it was easy and they had the lowest price. Furthermore you can combine everything using their “One-Bill” service to make managing services easy.

Or so it would seem. Continued