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American cell-phone providers have decided that instead of competing on prices and/or quality they would earn their money by aggressively fleecing helples customers.
At this moment there is discussion on Slashdot about an unbelievable practice of mobile carriers in USA.
A customer bought an used non-locked smartphone. Bought a voice-only contract for it. He set the phone up so that it will not use over-the-cell data, ony WiFi. The carrier started to charge him $30 data plan regardless. It turned out, that ALL cell-phone providers automatically start charging you for data if they find out that your phone is capable of using data.
I couldn't believe.
I know that cell-phone providers in USA provide very crappy and extremely expensivew services, but this is too much. When I was in USA I saw how brutally cell-phone providers, internet providers and cable TV operators overcharge hapeless customers for crappy basic service.
Now, with this stupid law, they have ahother weapon on their hands to screw their suck^H^H^H^Hcustomers even more efffectively.
My american friends told me that just up until a few years ago situation wasn't this bad. Then carriers started to synchronize their ever-higher prices for their ever-more-limited services. Imagine, they charge you even for "incoming" minutes. So when you purchase 100 minutes and somebody calls you for 10 minutes, ony 90 minutes remain on your plan after the call. Outrageous.
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