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 $300. 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." Klobuchar is now apparently trying to put her legislation where her angst is. According to an exclusive report from The Hill, the Senator is unveiling a new bill taking aim at ETFs. Details are vague, but the bill would attempt to limit the size and scope of such fees. Klobuchar's previous efforts on this front weren't passed into law, but they did get carriers to voluntarily pro-rate (reduce the ETF each month you're under contract).

Charter Communications continues to battle with the company's lenders, who are trying to prevent the bankrupt cable company from exiting bankruptcy so they can appeal a court ruling approving the reorganization. Creditors have been fighting against Charter's reorganization plan all summer and fall, primarily because they don't like the pre-bankruptcy interest rates agreed to in the deal. "Hundreds of millions of dollars of additional interest and would put at peril the entire plan," Charter attorneys claim in court filings. Last week Charter executives indicated that a post-bankruptcy Charter would explore price hikes and metered billing for the company's customers.

Earlier this month we noted that Verizon had started offering a trio of new prepaid wireless broadband options for those of you who couldn't find an open Wi-Fi hotspot, simply hate contracts, and don't mind paying a steep premium for bandwidth. Verizon now offers a $15, 75MB "day pass" plan, a $30, 250MB "week pass" plan, or a $50, 500MB "month pass" plan.

Not to be outdone, AT&T today alerted us to the fact that they too are now going to be offering prepaid wireless broadband plans. Dubbed the AT&T DataConnect Pass, the pricing and daily usage limits mirror Verizon's plans exactly:One difference in the plans is that Verizon's prepaid passes charge you overages should you cross the cap (20.

AT&T continues their efforts to counter Verizon's recent uppercut series of ads making fun of the AT&T 3G network's limited footprint and sub-par performance. AT&T's been running three new ads that feature actor Luke Wilson mocking Verizon for the inability of its customers to talk and surf the web at the same time, while using postcards and a giant map to reiterate that AT&T has EDGE and voice coverage across most of America.

Of course AT&T's generally taken flack not for EDGE coverage but for poor HSDPA coverage -- and more specifically inconsistent HSDPA performance. While it may be true that AT&T covers nearly 300,000,000 people as the ads claim, the problem has been they don't always do it very well -- especially in congested markets.

Comcast's dream of acquiring NBC Universal can't come to fruition until Vivendi executives sell their 20% stake in the company, according to the Los Angeles Times. Obviously the value of that 20% differs greatly depending on how much the company is deemed to be worth -- and according to the Times, Vivendi wants that number to be at least $500-$900 million greater than what's currently on the table. GE has placed a value on NBC Universal of $27 billion to $30 billion. While Vivendi and GE hash out the numbers, consumer advocates continue to lambast the deal as only really being good for industry executives, giving the companies yet more market power, and the authority to restrict competition from Hulu (which Comcast would gain control over after the deal).

Users in our Earthlink forum have been complaining about an Earthlink e-mail outage that began last Friday, and persisted through the weekend. While some users say their e-mail service has since been resolved, others say they were left without e-mail for more than three days. In conversations with Earthlink, the company says the issues are server failure related, but the company wouldn't get more specific. The problems appear to be impacting all Earthlink users, including dial-up, DSL and cable customers. The Wall Street Journal also noted the outage but similarly got no comment from Earthlink.

Frontier users have been receiving notices that the company is bumping the cost of their monthly model rental fee for all DSL customers. According to a notice being sent to customers, the company has officially bumped the monthly modem rental fee from $3.99 to $6.99 per month. The new price point means users will now shell out $168 for a modem they won't own over the length of a two-year contract. Somebody has to pay for all the legal fees and ad campaigns focused on getting their Verizon deal approved, and it's apparently you. As our users note, some users can get Frontier to waive the rental fee if they get a modem elsewhere, but your mileage on this front may vary.

• Comcast, NBCU Negotiations Snag Over Valuation Of Vivendi's Stake [multichannel.com]
• Google Blocking Set Top Boxes From Showing YouTube Unless They Pay Up? [techdirt.com]
• How Video Is Changing the Internet [gigaom.com]
• Illegal filesharing plan 'may breach human rights' [top10-broadband.co.uk]
• China warns of a new virus [theinquirer.net]
• Ikee.B virus gives control of iPhones to cybercriminals [computerweekly.com]
• Nook sold out for the holidays [cnet.com]