It's good to see that Congress is waking up to Verizon's outrageous early-termination fees, which were recently doubled to $350 for "advanced devices" (read: smart phones).

Today, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) expressed her opposition to the fee, calling it "anti-competitive and anti-consumer."

Klobuchar voiced her concerns in a letter to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. She wrote, “I remain concerned that [early-termination fees] — especially at these high prices — unfairly penalize consumers, bear little to no relationship to the cost of the handset device, and are anti-consumer and anti-competitive.”

The letter is an important step toward shaming the wireless industry, and will hopefully lead to action that will make it impossible for companies to price-gouge customers.

The senator also used the opportunity to promote her bill, the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act, which would require wireless providers to prorate their early termination fees (before the bill saw much life, the industry responded by... prorating early-termination fees, hoping to appease Congress and obviate a law).

Free Press applauds Sen. Klobuchar for standing up for the public’s interest. Verizon's decision to increase its fees has put many of us over the edge, and we're happy to see them called out.