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.

For years now, the battle against piracy has gone a little something like this: based on sometimes accurate evidence, intelligence firms working for the entertainment industry send the IP address information of users who've shared a copyrighted file to ISPs, who then forward a DMCA warning letter to the end user without identifying that user to the entertainment industry. The end user then completely ignores the letter and -- absolutely nothing else happens.

Most consumers have made it pretty clear that they don't like the idea of having their online browsing activity tracked, stored and used to sell them additional crap -- particularly without their consent. That hasn't stopped ISPs from quietly selling your clickstream data (then denying it), and while consumer fears have temporarily shelved behavioral advertising efforts like Phorm or NebuAD, the billions in untapped revenues there mean that total Internet usage surveillance and monetization is arriving whether you like it or not.

Given they're in bankruptcy because of their botched deal with Verizon, it's not particularly surprising that Fairpoint Communications is working with a bit of a tight purse. Still, while they've not been able to pay their bills, they've still been able to recently hire two new top tier PR firms to shore up their sagging brand image.

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.

• Clearwire the industry darling again [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• Sprint drops PTT over EV-DO Rev. A [fiercebroadbandwireless.com]
• Mobile broadband technology 'still finding its way' [cable.co.uk]
• Will Verizon’s LTE require you to buy a 3G contract? [muniwireless.com]
• Is Netflix's CEO Wooing Comcast? [seekingalpha.com]
• Spyware threat haunts squeaky-clean iPhones [theregister.co.uk]
• FairPoint asks court to put rebates on hold [cellular-news]
• UK Politicians Pushing Back On Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill [techdirt.com]

• Broadband stimulus moves at dial-up speeds [physorg.com]
• Consumers aren't dissatisfied enough with broadband, says analyst [broadbandgenie.co.uk]
• FCC Requests Information On How Set-Top Boxes Can Spur Internet Viewing [multichannel.com]
• Comcast promises not to lock Hulu behind paywall [theregister.co.uk]
• Bill aims to limit wireless early termination fees; Do we need this? [zdnet.com]
• Comcast-NBC Merger: Just Say No [freepress.net]
• RIM warns of 'rogue' smartphones attacking networks [canada.com]
• Microsoft to plug critical IE hole targeted by exploit code [cnet.com]

The FCC has issued a public notice (pdf) requesting input on precisely what it would take to migrate the nation from its legacy circuit-switched phone systems to an all-IP voice network. "In identifying the appropriate areas of inquiry, we seek to understand which policies and regulatory structures may facilitate, and which may hinder, the efficient migration to an all IP world," says the agency. The effort would probably make the FCC's coordinated transition to digital television look like a cake walk -- so the FCC is getting an early start ahead of more formal rule creating processes. Now if you'll excuse us, we think our neighbor is finally off of the party line and we need to call grandma.

Whether it breaks the core functionality of the Internet or not, there's very few ISPs left who aren't using DNS redirection advertising. The "service" essentially creates an entirely new revenue stream for ISPs, by presenting users with an ad-laden search portal instead of the traditional page not found error when they mistype a URL or enter a non-existent one.

Earlier this week Sprint found itself at the center of a privacy firestorm, after a blogger posted an audio recording of a Sprint executive discussing a new Sprint portal designed to easily hand off GPS-tracking data to authorities. Whereas some companies simply would have clammed up and cited national security, Sprint decided to address the claims head on and has been talking with all media outlets (and us) about what happened.

Comcast and General Electric sent out announcements to the press this morning saying that the long-expected Comcast and NBC Universal deal is official. According to the companies, Comcast and NBC Universal are creating a new joint venture 51% owned by Comcast and operated by Comcast. In exchange for their 51% stake, Comcast is paying $6.5 billion in cash up front, as well as an additional $7.25 billion in cable assets.

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.

• Europe's ISPs object to secret copyright treaty talks [theregister.co.uk]
• AOL's New Strategy Is To Fill The Internet With Crap? [techdirt.com]
• Will ubiquitous wireless change the nature of urban spaces? [muniwireless.com]
• Level 3: Will Acquisition Rumors Come True? [seekingalpha.com]
• United We Stand: The Power of Aggregated Broadband [technewsworld.com]
• Murdoch vs. Aggregators: Who's Going to Foot the Content Bill? [seekingalpha.com]
• Cisco Launches FlipShare TV [informationweek.com]

While it veers astray from our normal subject matter of broadband-related news, users in our security forum are indicating that Avast antivirus appears to have gone seriously off of the rails. According to users, the application has suddenly decided to flag many safe applications, freshly-downloaded files and dlls as malicious, wreaking havoc on user systems.

• Congress Asked To Preempt State VOIP Regulation [multichannel.com]
• Is Allen Stepping Down As Charter Chairman? [multichannel.com]
• Carriers split on support for tethering [fiercewireless.com]
• Groups urge changes to broadband stimulus programs [networkworld.com]
• FCC to Broadcasters: You Gonna Use All That Spectrum? [newteevee.com]
• FTC and Department of Justice will duke it out to see who gets to review Comcast-NBC [latimes.com]
• Verizon defends LTE at WiMAX confab [fiercewireless.com]
• Skype goes public with SIP beta program [v3.co.uk]
• Free Content Undermines Democracy? [techdirt.com]
• RadioShack rolling out iPhone nationwide next year [fiercewireless.com]
• Apple iPhone coming to T-Mobile instead of Verizon Wireless in 2010 [bloggingstocks.com]

Last month we noted how Verizon has increasingly been under fire from regulators in West Virginia, Florida and New York for slacking when it comes to maintenance and customer service for their aging DSL networks. With so much money to be made on getting into the TV business via FiOS TV, workers, customers and regulators say the telco is cutting corners in markets it's less interested in (when they're not busy just selling these markets outright).

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).

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.