San Francisco Chronicle: Comcast is limiting bandwidth to 250 GB a month. It's a bad deal for consumers, says UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames. More.

The Utility Consumers’ Action Network (UCAN), Privacy Rights Clearing House (PRC), New Media Rights (NMR) and the San Diego Enviro Leader Network (SDELN) are inviting you to a monthly mixer at their open house!

Fierce Wireless, one of the industry's leading electronic news monitoring sources, stated today in an article by Sue Marek, that Apple's IPhone didn't measure up to what it advertised and represented to consumers.  The main issues in the lawsuit included the fact that the connectivity speed for data, Internet & like functions were allegedly much slower than advertised and that there was erratic connection in general.  Read More.

UCAN found a good CBS5.com story from the San Francisco area about the new AT&T long "legaleze"-type contracts recently sent to AT&T residential service customers. Read More. What does it mean?  It means that after January 1, 2009, AT&T can raise your rates as high as it wants and whenever it chooses to do so.  

UCAN is reading the new AT&T contract to provide you with a breakdown of its contents well before the deadline of October 1, 2008.   Watch for UCAN's breakdown of the "gotcha" areas--coming soon.  UCAN also measured the length of the AT&T fold-out service agreement and it is close to 1 yard long.  There is two-sided separate slip of paper that comes with the AT&T written service agreement.  Read it here.

Recently I had to "choose" a broadband Internet provider. After having my "choices" narrowed down for me by a serious lack of competition ( I hear U-Verse is on its way some day), I went with my first, last, and only choice, Time Warner. Despite feeling trapped, the Time Warner customer service rep wooed me with promises of a new broadband paradigm, Roadrunner "turbo." For some reason this "15 Mbps down, 2 Mbps" up Internet was cheaper than the default 8 Mbps/ 1 Mbps option of yesteryear, so I pounced on the deal like a caged tiger given extra scraps of meat at dinner.

The moral of this story is to check the bandwidth you're getting from your broadband Internet provider.

Power Net Global (PNG) has changed. UCAN is no longer including the option of using Power Net Global (PNG).  In 2002, UCAN did a consumer guide and a newsletter showing PNG as a great option for long distance phone service because not only did UCAN members get installation fees waived, but there were NO monthly fees for customers using this service.  The company now charges minimum monthly usage fees and a .99 cent monthly fee.  To top things off, PNG recently started rounding up each call to the nearest minute instead of the six-second increcements it use to use.  The bottom line is that there are better deals out there for consumers!

Los Angeles Times - Consumer columnist David Lazarus reports on new strategies being developed by cable and telecom companies that may not be as beneficial to consumers as the companies predict.  MORE

Telecom political action groups gave twice as much money to Democrats who switched from opposing to supporting legal amnesty to Telecoms that aided the government's warrantless wiretapping program. More.

Using a cell phone without hands-free equipment while driving is now unlawful. However, studies show that hands-free driving isn't necessarily any safer than having a cell phone glued to your ear, and that simply talking on any phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. Yet oddly, talking to a fellow passenger while driving or listening to the radio does not seem to be a significant cause of accidents. Why? Is it possible that driving poorly while talking on the phone is a function of age? More.

California law prohibiting handheld cell phone usage takes effect July 1st. This blog explains the details, limitations, and exceptions to the law.