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. According to a Klobuchar press release, the bill would impose limits on how high such fees could be, while requiring betters communication between carriers and customers. The bill would:

•Prevent wireless carriers from charging an ETF that is higher than the discount on the cell phone that the wireless company offers consumers for entering into a multi-year contract. For example, if a wireless consumer enters into a 2-year contract and receives a $150 discount with the contract, the ETF cannot exceed $150.

•Require wireless carriers to pro-rate their ETFs for consumers who leave their contracts early so that the ETF for a two-year contract would be reduced by half after one year and pro-rated down to zero by the end of a contract term.

•Require wireless carriers to provide "clear and conspicuous disclosure" of the ETF at the time of purchase.

•Require monthly billing statements to clearly state the pro-rated fee customers would be charged if they terminate their contracts before the end of the next billing cycle.

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.

We've discussed how a significant number of states passed new state level video franchise laws at the behest of phone company lobbyists, but didn't really realize what they were signing up for. Bills that consumers were told would result in lower TV prices by making it easier for phone companies to jump into the TV business, in many cases were little more than phone company wish lists -- aimed at legalizing the cherry picking of next-gen broadband deployment, eliminating local authority (even eminent domain rights) and in some cases eliminating tough consumer protection laws.

The cable industry this week is busy patting itself on the back for a new initiative they've dubbed "Adoption Plus." According to the cable industry's chief lobbying and PR arm, the National Cable And Telecommunications Association, Adoption Plus has been created to "promote sustainable broadband adoption for a vitally important-but-vulnerable population" -- namely middle school-aged children in low income households without broadband. As such, the industry says they're offering discounted broadband to low income homes.

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada last week opined that within the next ten years the game console will cease to exist -- at least in its current form. We're already seeing the life-cycles of gaming consoles extended courtesy of a constant stream of GUI and functionality upgrades delivered via broadband. The next step is making the console simply a dumb terminal with the network and remote servers doing the heavy lifting -- a segment OnLive is trying to tap into (though it will still likely take half a decade or more for this to arrive). Combined with the huge rise in casual browser-based games and the success of digital distribution platforms like Valve's Steam, Xbox Live and the Playstation Network, it's pretty clear that broadband has changed everything. Just keep an eye on those looming broadband caps and overage charges.

It's fairly common practice for cable carriers to blame their often bi-annual TV rate increases on the high costs their incur from broadcasters. Time Warner Cable appears poised to take this traditional tactic to a new level.

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.

After his company won approval of its bankruptcy plan this week, Charter Communications CEO Neil Smit tells Bloomberg that upon exiting from bankruptcy, the company will raise prices and consider consumption-based billing. Charter Communications hasn't been profitable since the company went public in 1999, posted a $2.45 billion loss last year, constantly ranks at the bottom of most customer satisfaction surveys, is swimming in debt, and was just forced into bankruptcy and reorganization.

Back in September we noted how it seems like only a matter of time before Verizon engaged in metered broadband billing. After Time Warner Cable's PR implosion, most ISPs are in a holding pattern on the idea until they can sell consumers on it, something they haven't done a good job of so far.

Given the high costs of deploying fiber to the home, we're starting to see new models emerge whereby if customers really want it, they can share the cost of having it installed (one Norwegian ISP gives a $400 rebate if you dig your own fiber trench). Now Utopia, the nation's largest municipal fiber deployment, is testing a new model whereby communities who want the fiber deployed can share the cost of installation. As more Utah cities look to connect to Utopia but debate how they should pay for it, Brigham City has decided that if users want fiber they can pay for it themselves. 1,600 local residents have already ponied up $3,000 a piece, helping the city install a $5.5 million network while the city itself only puts up about $700,000 of the required cost.

Verizon suffered from quite a bloody third quarter when it came to DSL numbers, the company losing 135,000 DSL customers -- and only a portion of those having upgraded to the company's FiOS service. To help counter these DSL losses Verizon keeps tinkering with their DSL promotions, and yesterday rolled out a new one. According to a Verizon press release, new Verizon 1 Mbps, 3 Mbps or 7 Mbps DSL customers can get service free for six months if they're willing to sign a one year contract with the company. FiOS customers should note the company has also slightly tweaked their FiOS promotions depending on where you live.

Whether it comes to triple play broadband or wireless service, pricing plans are often designed to give the illusion of value -- instead of the real thing. Bundle plans are often designed to prevent direct comparisons with a competitor's service, and plans are almost always designed to get you to pay more money than you'd like.

Back in June, Virgin Mobile announced a new wireless broadband service dubbed "Broadband2Go." Broadband2Go operates over Sprint's EVDO network, offering users the choice of buying pay-as-you-go cards in 100MB ($10), 250MB ($20), 500MB ($40) and 1GB ($60) increments. Not only are those not particularly impressive prices -- given Sprint itself offers 5GB of connectivity for $60 -- but Virgin Mobile puts an expiration date on the cards. While these caps are downright silly, such connections are marginally useful from a convenience perspective, assuming you don't have a 3G connection or can't find a (usually free) Wi-Fi hotspot. According to an announcement today, those of you not put off by the pricing can get the service from over 1,000 Best Buy Mobile stores, over 4,300 Radio Shack stores, Sam's Club kiosks via Radio Shack, Walmart.com and Target.com as of December 1, 2009.

Cox Communications is informing Louisiana customers that they'll be raising both TV and broadband prices this fall. According to The Advocate, basic cable customers will be seeing a price hike of $2.58 per month, and those who subscribe to expanded basic will pay another $3 per month. Premium services like HBO and Showtime will also be seeing $1 hikes. Cox customers on starter, value, preferred or premier broadband tiers can also expect rate hikes of between $2 and $3 a month. The hikes are occurring in Lafayette, despite the added competition in the market from the local municipal fiber deployment Cox tried so very hard to derail.

Verizon today announced that the company is offering three new prepaid wireless broadband price plans, aimed at users who only need occasional access to Verizon's EVDO network while on a trip or vacation, really like to pay an arm and a leg for data, or just really, really hate long-term contracts. To use these new prepackaged bits, you'll of course need to buy the Verizon Wireless USB760 modem for $129.99.

According to a leaked memo posted over at the Boy Genius Report, Verizon is preparing to double the early termination fee for customers who buy new smartphones via Verizon. According to the memo, customers after November 15 who buy an "advanced device" (smartphones) can expect to pay a $350 ETF, though that total will decrease $10 a month every month a user's under contract. The BGR surmises that the change is to stop people from flipping subsidized smartphones over at eBay, though you can also be sure Verizon's forced migration to open devices and platforms has them eager to make up some of that lost revenue in other places.

Earlier this week we noted how Verizon's quarterly subscriber additions for their fiber to the home FiOS service were lower than anticipated. The company added 191,000 new FiOS subs on the quarter, down from the 300,000 added in the second quarter.

There's several broadband subscriber perks that have gone the way of the dodo in recent years. The most notable of course is free access to Usenet, but many ISPs have also done away with offering users free dial-up connectivity for travel or during outages. We know Cox is still offering it, but several Time Warner Cable and Road Runner customers write in to note the company this week is e-mailing its customers saying that they're no longer going to get free dial-up access starting November 30. With the availability of so much free Wi-Fi (much of it now being offered by carriers) it's apparently seen as an added, unnecessary expense. Is your ISP still offering it?

Yesterday we highlighted how a common flaw in the argument for metered billing is that it confuses pure per-byte billing with what carriers actually want to implement -- which is usually value-limited tiers with high base prices, low caps and high overage limits. The push really is all about already profitable companies looking to raise prices ahead of the Internet video explosion, something that's often disingenuously dressed up as altruism or fairness. Thankfully, we're starting to see some of our colleagues in the sector notice this, like Stacey Higginbotham over at GigaOM, who correctly observes that "when ISPs talk about meters they're talking about different service tiers that don't reflect actual usage, but herd customers into set plans where most will be paying a monthly fee for more than they use." It's a simple but important distinction.