Georgia Legislator Takes Aim At Cell Phone Contracts
One of carriers' favorite marketing tools is the long-term contract, which charges users heavy fees should they want to break it. They justify this by saying they're necessary to ensure they make back what they shell out on handset subsidies, which is true to some extent. But many carriers require customers to renew contracts when they make all sorts of other changes to their service, even if it's a simple change of plan. Now, a Georgia state legislator has introduced a bill that would prohibit carriers from forcing people to extend their contracts just to change their calling plans. Operators, of course, say the legislation is unnecessary and that the long-term contracts actually help consumers in some way. Contracts are a constant source of complaints from consumers, but they do help bring about the cheap handsets people like so much. Of course, operators would love to reduce or eliminate handset subsidies, but it's too much to expect them to eliminate contracts and high ETFs should that happen. As usual, they want their cake and to eat it too.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
