However, even consumers who do have an unlimited plan may be getting bills that are higher than expected.  This is largely due to a practice known as ‘cramming’ in the industry.  Cramming occurs when cell phone companies add on additional charges to your bill, charges for items you never signed up for, in many cases.

Cramming is nothing new.  Landline telephone companies have been engaging in the practice for years, but the explosion of cell phones across the United States has made the practice become more widespread.  Whereas previously there was usually only one phone for each American household, now a family is likely to have a landline as well as several cell phones.  More phones in operation mean more potential for misleading or fraudulent charges.

The federal government is aware of the problem; Senator Charles Schumer has urged the FCC to be stricter with cell phone companies, which frequently allow third parties to add charges onto phone bills; many fraudulent charges originate with this practice.

The next time you get a phone bill, carefully look at each line to be sure you are only paying for services you have requested.

A new research study conducted by Harris Poll has discovered that Americans are increasingly using their handheld cell phones to do much more than merely make voice calls.  Instead, a full fifth of all adult cell phone owners indicated that they have used their phone to buy something online during the previous 12 months.  This was true whether the phone in question was an advanced smart phone or the much simpler and more affordable feature phone.  The 20 percent of Americans engaged in mobile commerce represent almost 40 million individuals.

All of this means that for the average American we can expect a great deal more advertising and marketing to be transmitted through our cell phones in future.  This will happen as more and more retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar come to understand that in the cell phone using population, they have a new market to exploit.

Indeed, three out of every ten adults using a cell phone in the US indicated during the poll that if they did not already receive advertising via text messages, they would be happy to do so.  It may seem odd for people to welcome advertising, but targeted text messaging advertising often takes the form of special deals and discounts that are announced only to those who opt to receive such messages.  Consumers often regard these as a benefit rather than a nuisance.

It remains to be seen how else cell phones will improve our lives, but it is certain that new and innovative uses will continue to be developed.

Manassas, which is located in the state of Virginia, has recently issued information to the town’s residents urging them to recycle a large variety of goods.  The information, which was produced by the town’s department of Public Works and Utilities, recommends the recycling of a large variety of materials including paper goods such as magazines, phone books, and even unwanted paperbacks.  Garden wastes and leaves are also appropriate for recycling, as are plastic and glass bottles.

The public information, however, went beyond typical the typical municipal guidance because it specifically called on Manassas residents to also recycle a wide range of electronic goods including printers, computers, electric typewriters, televisions, and most notably, cell phones.  Of all of these items, cell phones are the ones that consumers probably toss away the most frequently since mobile phone technology is changing at such a fast clip.

Cell phone recycling is fast and easy to accomplish and all consumers need to do is go online and search for outfits that will accept old phones.  Best of all, many of these recycle old cell phones for cash.

SellCell.com is also featured in this publication by Donna, helping people to find out what they can do with their old cell phones instead of throwing them in the trash.

The book itself contains six chapters:

• Getting Started
• Selling Online
• Selling Locally
• Swapping
• Donating
• Final Advice

If you get in now, there is a special introductory price, and the book can be purchased from Amazon for $3.17, available on the Kindle  - http://amzn.to/IqgwBV

The trial will make use of the near field communication application from Thales with HOP, the final smart card ticketing system from Auckland Transport, before it is deployed on a global basis across all banks and networks.  The trial, which also makes use of the XT network from Telecom, will enable the participants to use their cell phones on all buses, ferries and trains in Auckland.

“Mobile phone technology makes the option of paying for transport services using a device the majority of New Zealanders carry with them every day, a natural choice reducing the number of cards customers have to carry,” says the chief executive officer of Auckland Transport, Dr David Warburton.

The chief executive officer of Telecom, Paul Reynolds, says that the days of having to use multiple cards in order to pay for goods and services are now numbered.

“The firm has set up a recycling plant at Mancheswar,” says OPCB member secretary Sidhant Des. “We are also encouraging other firms to collect and dispose e-waste. We will give them permission if they fulfill the guidelines.”

Although the central government’s ministry of environment and forests had notified the rules back in the May of last year, it gave the producers of electronic and electrical equipment a buffer period of a full year in order for them to have time to set up collection and recycling centers for scientifically disposing of the junk.

Odisha generates approximately 3000 tons of electronic waste such as old cell phones, computers, refrigerators and television sets every year, all of which contain toxic and hazardous materials that pose a serious threat both to the environment and to human health. The great majority of the electronic waste is generated in Bhubaneswar, which has the greatest number of commercial establishments, educational and research centers, government and private offices in the state.

The best way to dispose of cell phones properly is to take them to a cell phone recycling center.  Such centers have the knowledge and technology required to make sure that all components of the phone are dealt with in a correct manner so that no degradation of the natural environment will occur.

Approximate Percentages of Various Substances in Cell Phones

No two brands or models of cell phones are identical in all respects, but overall in the industry, mobile handsets follow roughly the same pattern of composition.

Cell phones contain up to 20% of a substance known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polycarbonate.  This is usually abbreviated as ABS and is a form of durable plastic.  Other major constituents include silica, soda, and lime, which combine together to make up the glass that covers screens and faceplates.  This contributes as much as 11% of the composition of a phone.  The chemical polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) makes up as much as 6% of a phone while regular polycarbonate represents 4%.

This was not the only troubling incident of ‘texting while walking’ accident.  There was also a woman who fell not into a shallow fountain, but into Lake Michigan itself.  Recently in China, a girl was so deeply engrossed in her cell phone usage that she vanished down a sinkhole created by water running beneath the surface of the street.  Of course, that could have happened do anyone walking along; the troubling part of this tale is that according to reports, she vanished without even yelping or calling out.  It was as though she were so wrapped up in her cell phone that she did not notice that she had vanished beneath the surface of the earth.

The old TV show Hill Street Blues used to have each morning meeting of police officers end with the admonition to “be careful out there.” Something similar could be said of cell phone usage.  To text while walking is not illegal, but it does have its dangers.  We would all do well to “be careful out there”.

In 2009, only slightly more than 10 percent of Americans felt guilty if they failed to recycle cell phones they no longer needed or wanted. That figure now hovers around 30 percent, an increase of almost 300 percent. At the same time, almost 60 percent of US residents report that they have old electronics sitting around in need of proper disposal. These electronics consist not only of cell phones but also of items such as television sets and computers. All of these items can be recycled to help safeguard the environment, though since Americans go through cell phones faster than the other item; this category remains one of the most significant potential sources of additional recycling.

Americans are no strangers to recycling. The vast majority of us do some form of this activity, usually centering on aluminum cans or plastic bottles. To shift attitudes so that cell phone recycling is just as common remains a challenge that the industry is trying to meet. It has become much simpler in recent years to recycle a cell phone now that there are online websites making the process fast and easy.

Inmates try to get around the restriction on cell phones by having one smuggled into them by a visitor; in some high-profile cases guards have even been bribed to provide prisoner’s with cell phones. Now, it seems that the California prison system is fed up with dealing with the flow of prohibited cell phones into the state’s prisons. The private firm that currently owns the rights to provide pay phones inside the state’s prisons has agreed to install cell phone blocking technology.

This decision will have both a public and a private benefit. Public safety will not be endangered any longer by criminals freely using phones to conduct illegal activities; prisoners will have to go back to using pay phones, which are typically monitored by prison staff. At the same time, the private company will once more be making money from the pay phones.

This move is a welcome step forward to making sure that cell phones in our society are used but not abused.