The Verizon Wireless Data Rip Off -- A Case Study

For several years now, without unilateral amends by the company, or intervention by the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon Wireless, has profited handsomely when subscribers push a wrong button on their handsets and unintentionally access the Internet.

15 million subscribers initiated data sessions generating over $90 million in revenues for Verizon. The revenue number is so high, because many handsets offer one button Internet access and even a few seconds of access generated a $1.99 fee as data users, lacking a monthly plan, trigger a per Megabyte fee regardless of whether only a few bytes got transmitted. What I find remarkable about this rip off is the "mystery" of how the charges rose to $90 million without either the company or the FCC doing something about it. Might Verizon have grown to assume such revenues would contribute to "making its numbers"? Might the FCC get all too easily persuaded that Verizon Wireless eventually would do the right thing?