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senate posts

'Safe Prisons Communication Act' passes Senate, inmates won't be able to hear you soon

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 7th 2009 @ 8:37AM

Inmates certainly are industrious folk, relying on pigeons and helicopters and surely the odd baked good or body cavity to smuggle cell phones into prisons. Soon it'll be all for naught, with the Senate unanimously passing the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009, allowing prisons to use cellphone jammers. Now the Act will be run over to the House, where we presume it'll flow through with equal expediency. Mind you, cellphone jammer usage outside of jails will continue to be decidedly illegal, meaning activating one could result in your going to jail. Now that would be tragic.

[Via textually.org]

Senators intro wireless consumer protection bill, industry complains

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 19th 2007 @ 3:03AM

A continuation of earlier sessions on the subject, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Jay Rockefeller have introduced legislation this month that could throw a rather hefty monkey wrench at the contracts and early termination fees wireless subscribers have come to know and ~~love~~ loathe. Known as the "Cellphone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007," the proposed bill takes swings at virtually every aspect of carriers' billing practices, limiting what fees can be listed on statements, capping contract termination charges, and giving the FCC more direct control over handset locking practices. Naturally, the CTIA and its members are less than thrilled with the proposed law, arguing that it'll lead to higher bills (quite the opposite effect the legislation's sponsors had in mind) and that consumer complaints levied against carriers on the already decline without government intervention anyway. Grab some popcorn and have a seat, folks; this won't all get resolved for a hot minute or two.

University of Florida students grumble over Cingular service

by Darren Murph posted Nov 11th 2006 @ 6:18PM

While Cingular has claimed that its GSM network integration with AT&T Wireless is complete (thus more reliable), and throws out a bajillion advertisements gloating about the "independent research" proving the company's lack of dropped calls, you'd probably have a hard time convincing the Florida Gators that those statements are entirely accurate. While we know that Engadget has been banned from Cingular's forums, there's no denying the bevy of complaints from UF students regarding the atrocious service around the Gainesville campus. Things got so bad that students rallied around the issue of Cingular improving its service, finally escalating it to the Student Senate, where unfortunately it was voted down after "fierce debate." The resolution called the carrier's service on campus "unacceptable," and cited problems ranging from consistently dropping calls to receiving error messages when trying to dial out. When local Cingular representatives were asked to comment on the outcry, they reportedly blamed the students "lack of reporting problems" as the culprit, curiously omitting the entire debacle that just went down. Nevertheless, we don't expect the members of the Swamp to take this subpar play laying down, but you may want to think twice about which provider to snap up if you're headed to UF next fall.

[Thanks, Anthony]