At launch, Google took heat for a number of things related to their "Nexus One" smartphone, including the fact that customers who canceled service early faced $550 in fees (a $200 ETF from T-Moble, and a $350 Google "Equipment Recovery Fee"), which was more than the phone even cost. Responding to these criticisms, sluggish Nexus One sales,
and the FCC's recent
inquiry into ETFs, Google says they're lowering the Nexus One "equipment recovery fee" from $350 to $150, and talks about the decision to the
Wall Street Journal:
A Google representative said the company had been working with T-Mobile to lower the equipment fee. "Google's overall financial philosophy with regard to operator service plans remains unchanged: We make no profit from commissions from operators or from equipment recovery fees, and our recovery fees are based on operator charges to Google for early termination of service," the company said in a statement.
Another criticism of the Nexus One launch was that Google was only offering e-mail support (with turaround response time of up to 24 hours). That's also changing, with
TMO News indicating that Google has officially launched phone support for the Nexus One (888-48-NEXUS (63987)). A third major criticism of the product was that the phone struggled to obtain 3G connectivity, even in markets where T-Mobile 3G service exists. That problem was apparently fixed with a
recent firmware update, though some connectivity complaints persist.
(
Updated with response from Verizon at bottom.) Last summer you might recall that 4Chan users collectively cried out that they'd been
blocked by AT&T, and began firing their trademark digital barbs at the carrier's direction. As it turned out, the website had only been temporarily blocked as AT&T worked to resolve a distributed denial of service attack. Now in a post to their
status blog, 4Chan says they've been blocked by Verizon Wireless. "We've received confirmation from Verizon's Network Repair Bureau (NRB) that we are 'explicitly blocked,'" says 4Chan founder Moot in a status update.
Back in the summer of 2008 Italian government officials
demanded that broadband ISPs in the country begin blocking users from accessing popular BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay. Many ISPs obliged, but oddly decided instead to direct users to the website of the IFPI (the overseas equivalent of the RIAA). In the end the Pirate Bay managed to defeat the order with an appeal, and the end result was that all the publicity simply
drove more user traffic to the website. However, the Italian Supreme Court has now ruled that forcing Italian ISPs to block BitTorrent websites is perfectly legal, so the government appears poised to
try again. Of course Italian broadband users will find a way around the blockade, and the game of P2P cat and mouse will continue...
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story continues..