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"Want to bail out of your Verizon service for a shiny new iPhone, or head to another carrier before your contract ends? There's an early termination fee for that. And starting next week, that fee is going to double if you've bought a smartphone or other mobile the carrier considers an \"advanced device\" high-end enough to warrant a steep $350 penalty for ditching.\nCurrently the ETF starts at $175 and is pro-rated by $5 each month you're in your contract. If you pick up a BlackBerry or Android phone (like the new Droid) after November 15, though, you'll be in for a $350 starting fee that drops by $10 a month. That means even if you cancel your contract in the very last month of service you'd owe Verizon a $110 chunk of change.To explain how we could possibly have even gotten here requires a bit of backstory. When you buy a phone on a carrier in the U.S. (and in many other countries around the world), you typically get a discounted price on the phone in exchange for signing a 1- or 2-year service contract with that carrier. The cell companies are willing to subsidize the actual street cost of a phone because of the guarantee that they'll make it back as well as a tidy profit off of your cell service over the life of the contract.\nThus the argument goes that because smartphones are even more expensive in actual cost value than that basic, no-frills flip phone you can get cheap or even free, the carrier needs more \"insurance\" should you decide to duck out early. However, consumers and even some legislators are none too happy with the news, including a Minnesota Senator who seeks to block the deal. Others like David Pogue in his NYTimes editorial tie Verizon's announcement to other shady revenue tactics and the carrier's overall reputation of aggressive pricing and steep additional fees.\nWhat do you think: is Verizon over-reaching its bounds? Do we already pay enough in extra data costs for these \"advanced devices\" to offset the subsidy, or is the company justified in trying to cover its costs?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/11/13/verizon-etf/>