Last summer, Teresa Dixon Murray at the Cleveland Plain Dealer did a great job highlighting a phantom $1.99 fee Verizon Wireless was hitting consumers with -- even when phones were off, phone batteries were dead, Internet access was blocked, or the phones couldn't go online. Many of you at the time complained about the fee as well. If you remember, Verizon told the paper they'd fix the problem, the charges were "erroneous" and that users would be getting full refunds.

Apparently, we were the only people who read that story, because in November David Pogue at the New York Times wrote the exact same story complaining about the rogue fee -- and this time it generated all manner of controversy. Pogue's story did add an extra wrinkle, given it contained information from a Verizon employee stating that the entire thing was essentially a ruse designed to generate millions in additional revenue, and Verizon wasn't doing a thing to stop it:Especially if nobody is paying attention except the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Teresa Dixon Murray, right? After all, ripping people off is the second most loved American pastime behind baseball, and some consider it an inalienable right. But whereas the Dealer story didn't get much attention, the Times story did -- and the FCC has now started sniffing around as a result. According to the FCC, they've sent this letter to Verizon (pdf) asking the company to explain the phantom fee.

A few weeks ago, you might recall that Verizon decided they were going to raise their early termination fees for smartphone users from $175 to $350. You might also recall how this annoyed Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who wrote to both the FCC and Verizon to complain that the ETF hike was "anti-consumer and anti-competitive." As had been rumored, Klobuchar yesterday unveiled a bill taking aim at early termination fees.

Mike Dano over at Fierce Wireless does a nice job running down the specifics for each wireless carrier when it comes to tethering -- or using your phone as a modem. Specifically amusing is T-Mobile, who tells Dano they don't offer tethering and won't support it. This despite the fact that T-Mobile customers tether their handsets all the time, for no additional charge. You'd think this could be a competitive differentiator for T-Mobile worth highlighting, but apparently they're not too keen to talk about it:The first rule of T-Mobile tethering club is that you apparently don't talk about T-Mobile tethering club. Meanwhile, iPhone users continue to wait for tethering functionality, while Verizon promises tethering for Droid sometime next year for an extra $30 on top of your existing wireless data plan.

As expected, Time Warner Cable has launched their Clear-powered mobile WiMAX service in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, as well as in several North Carolina markets, including Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro. Dubbed "Roadrunner Mobile," the service offers speeds up to 6 Mbps for prices ranging from $39.95 a month to $79.95 a month, depending on you bundling options (you have to purchase at least one other service).

A few weeks ago you'll recall that AT&T sued Verizon Wireless for a new series of advertisements poking fun at AT&T's 3G network performance and coverage. Specifically, AT&T told us they believed the ads "mislead customers into believing that AT&T does not offer any wireless service in the vast majority of the country," despite the fact that the ads simply compared 3G coverage only (see example ad).

Blogger Christopher Soghoian is raising eyebrows this week with a recording of a Sprint executive at a conference exploring how Sprint has been using a new portal to give user GPS data to law enforcement agents "8 million times" over a thirteen month span. The disclosure of course immediately raised questions over what kind of legal process is being followed, and who's being tracked.

Straight off of AT&T and Verizon's multi-week network quality snark fest, Consumer Reports has issued their latest survey of wireless carriers and phones, and it probably won't make AT&T particularly happy. The survey itself is available to subscribers only, but we can tell you that the findings generally mirror other recent surveys of the wireless sector -- namely putting Verizon at the top in terms of customer satisfaction, while placing AT&T at the bottom.

Clearwire today announced that the Mobile WiMax company is now offering its new wireless broadband service in Honolulu and Maui. According to Clearwire, the launch covers about 800,000 of the 1.2 million people in the State and about 1,759 square miles over three islands: Oahu, Maui, and Lanai. The company also says they've brought the service to the Seattle area, that launch covering the areas between Tacoma to Bellingham (roughly 120 miles) and from the Puget Sound to Issaquah (17 miles). Clear service offers speeds between 3 and 6 Mbps (assuming your signal quality is good) with home and mobile pricing plans ranging from $35 to $75.

An FCC public notice (pdf) indicates that the agency is looking for a few good men, women or companies -- to act as database managers for the agency's white space broadband efforts. White space broadband allows for the unlicensed creation of inexpensive wireless broadband service by using the spectrum partially freed from the migration to digital television.

The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureau has recommended that Sprint stop running ads saying that the carrier has "America's most dependable 3G network." The recommendation comes after Verizon, fresh off of their lover's quarrel with AT&T, filed a complaint with the agency claiming that Sprint was using old data to support their claim. According to a NAD statement, Nielsen "drive test" data does confirm that Verizon's network has been more reliable of late: story continues..

Since the project was announced, analysts have raised questions over whether Sprint and Clearwire's Mobile WiMax joint venture would have enough money to successfully fund a full deployment. Estimates to bring the service to 140 million POPs in fifty US markets ranged as high as $12 billion in some quarters, though Clearwire itself has always said they'd get the job done for considerably less.

After several weeks of bickering in the public eye between AT&T and Verizon, Apple this week jumped into the debate feet first with two new ads. The ads, like AT&T's new ads featuring actor Luke Wilson, try to brush aside Verizon's criticisms of AT&T 3G network coverage and performance by highlighting that AT&T iPhone users can browse the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time.

Glenn Fleishman directs our attention to the fact that despite the constant calls for in-flight broadband service, Portfolio notes that people just aren't interested in paying for it. Or at least that's the conclusion author Joe Brancatelli comes to, despite admitting in the piece that hard user numbers "are nearly impossible to come by." Neither the airlines or the major in-flight Wi-Fi players (Aircell and Row44) are willing to talk real numbers, though insiders are apparently willing to talk anonymously about a few things: story continues..

Like Comcast, Time Warner Cable is reselling Clearwire Mobile WiMax service and bundling it with the company's existing broadband, TV and VoIP services. Back in October, the company indicated that they'd be launching their incarnation of the service starting December 1 in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro.

A few weeks ago, you might recall that Verizon decided they were going to raise their early termination fees for smartphone users from $175 to $300. You might also recall how this annoyed Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who wrote to both the FCC and Verizon to complain that the ETF hike was "anti-consumer and anti-competitive." Klobuchar is now apparently trying to put her legislation where her angst is. According to an exclusive report from The Hill, the Senator is unveiling a new bill taking aim at ETFs. Details are vague, but the bill would attempt to limit the size and scope of such fees. Klobuchar's previous efforts on this front weren't passed into law, but they did get carriers to voluntarily pro-rate (reduce the ETF each month you're under contract).

Earlier this month we noted that Verizon had started offering a trio of new prepaid wireless broadband options for those of you who couldn't find an open Wi-Fi hotspot, simply hate contracts, and don't mind paying a steep premium for bandwidth. Verizon now offers a $15, 75MB "day pass" plan, a $30, 250MB "week pass" plan, or a $50, 500MB "month pass" plan.

AT&T continues their efforts to counter Verizon's recent uppercut series of ads making fun of the AT&T 3G network's limited footprint and sub-par performance. AT&T's been running three new ads that feature actor Luke Wilson mocking Verizon for the inability of its customers to talk and surf the web at the same time, while using postcards and a giant map to reiterate that AT&T has EDGE and voice coverage across most of America.

There's been a flurry of rumors lately surrounding T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, and their desire to improve T-Mobile's fourth-place fortunes in the U.S. wireless market.

Apparently taking a page out of this month's advertising debate between AT&T and Verizon, Canadian carrier Telus has sued Rogers Communications for ads claiming that the Rogers wireless network is "the fastest and most reliable in the country." Telus and Bell Canada have of course just launched their new, $1 billion HSPA network, which offers speeds up to 21 Mbps to Canadian customers. As such, Telus demanded earlier this month that Rogers stop making advertising claims that they held the 3G speed edge -- a request Rogers ignored, since they too offer 21 Mbps HSPA+ service. "Telus has not submitted any data on their network performance and we look forward to vigorously defending our position in court," says Rogers.

After spending the last week or so taking pot shots at each other, AT&T and Verizon met in court yesterday to do legal battle over Verizon's latest wireless ads, which criticize AT&T's 3G network coverage and performance. AT&T had complained to the courts that the 3G coverage maps (clearly labeled as such) in the ads could confuse customers into thinking customers didn't get voice and EDGE coverage in non-3G markets. The Judge overseeing the case has not surprisingly denied AT&T's request to have the ads pulled, but has set a December 16 date to hear further arguments in the case.

Of course by the time this is settled, the "damage" to AT&T will already have been done -- made worse in this case by all the extra attention AT&T's suit brought to Verizon's ads, and in turn AT&T's network coverage. To try and make up some ground, AT&T has launched a new series of ads featuring Luke Wilson, proclaiming rather vaguely that AT&T offers "the best 3G experience." Surely there's some AT&T customers who'd like to take AT&T to task on that claim after the last year's worth of iPhone connectivity issues, belated MMS functionality and other problems?

At this point, AT&T's probably better off just giving those advertising and legal fees to their network engineers, who are in the field busily trying to upgrade the network and migrating markets to 850MHz.