That’s the word from agency Chairman Julius Genachowski, who says he’s concerned not just with the competitive ramifications of carrier-exclusivity deals, but with their tendency to limit customer access to top smartphones. “There are markets in the country where if you wanted an iPhone, if you wanted a Pre, you just couldn’t get it–from anyone,” Genachowski told Bloomberg. “So one question is, is that consistent with broad consumer interests?”

Vermont residents and those living in the rural areas of other states who can’t use the iPhone because AT&T (T) offers only roaming coverage there would likely say the answer to that question is no. But AT&T, Verizon (VZ) and other Tier 1 wireless carriers disagree. They claim exclusive handset deals are beneficial.

“The popularity of the iPhone and its innovative features and applications…has provoked an unprecedented competitive reaction,” James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president of external and legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. “Exclusive handsets have provided U.S. consumers the most advanced devices in the world at distinctly affordable rates. By allowing a carrier and a manufacturer to share the enormous risks and costs of bringing an inventive but unproven new device to market, exclusive arrangements both quicken the pace of technological advancement and incentivize the carrier to offer even greater handset subsidies to its customers.”

Verizon argued that point as well in a recent letter to Congress’s Telecommunications Subcommittee. “Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design,” the company said. “We work closely with our vendors to develop new and exciting devices that will attract customers. When we procure exclusive handsets from our vendors we typically buy hundreds of thousands or even millions of each device. Otherwise manufacturers may be reluctant to make the investments of time, money and production capacity to support a particular device.”

In some cases, perhaps. Though I doubt Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry, feel that way these days. If there’s reluctance anywhere, it’s reluctance on the part of carriers like AT&T, which can’t bear the thought of losing its exclusive on the iPhone, without which it will face defections and slowing growth.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

Recently, you reviewed some new Apple laptops whose batteries are sealed in and can’t be removed by the user. But I have had situations with some laptops where the only way to restart them when frozen is to remove the battery. How can this problem be handled if the battery is sealed in?

On Mac laptops, you can shut down the computer, even if the software appears frozen, by holding down the power button firmly and continuously for 5-10 seconds. You then wait a few seconds, press the power button again, and the machine should start up. This is different from the more common scenario where a brief press of the power button brings up a dialog box allowing you to choose to shut down or restart the Mac, or to put it into sleep mode.

Apple says there is another method you can use instead of removing a battery. Pressing the Control and Command keys simultaneously with the Power Button restarts the computer.

I live in the U.S. and when I visit Europe I have no cellphone, which makes it difficult to stay in touch during my trips. I am completely ignorant about cellphones and use a pay-as-you-go model that doesn’t work in Europe. What type of phone do you recommend I buy that I can use both in the States and abroad? I do not need a built-in camera, or any other fancy add-ons. I only want to be able to call people.

The two major U.S. phone carriers whose underlying technology is compatible with the system used in Europe are AT&T and T-Mobile. Given your needs and your usage pattern, I’d go into one of their stores and look for the least expensive and simplest model that can operate on all the frequencies used in the U.S. and Europe. These phones are typically referred to as “quad band” or sometimes as “world phones.” I would also try and find a plan that minimizes overseas roaming charges, which can be quite high.

Another option is to look for an “unlocked” phone that can accept different SIM cards, the small chips that connect phones to carriers. That way, you could have one SIM for use in the U.S. and another for whatever country you are visiting.

I have hundreds of folders in “My documents.” In each folder there may be hundreds more individual files. Is there a way to rapidly search for key words in all of those documents in order to locate any files that might contain a particular word?

If you are using Windows XP, you can download and install various desktop search add-on products that can solve your problem. The best known are Windows search, from Microsoft, at http://bit.ly/Dflai, and Google Desktop Search, at desktop.google.com. If you have Windows Vista, it comes with a built-in desktop search function that can accomplish that task, though you can also use the Google product.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

We absolutely will offer MMS on iPhone 3G S in the late summer, once we complete some system upgrades that will ensure our customers have the best experience with MMS. These upgrades are unrelated to our 3G network. … We plan to offer a tethering plan but we don’t have anything to announce today.

– AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom

Welcome news for folks who love the iPhone, but hate AT&T. The increasing prevalence of exclusivity agreements between wireless carriers and cellphone manufacturers, like the one between Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T), is drawing some government scrutiny. Four U.S. senators are urging the Federal Communications Commission to review such deals with an eye toward determining whether they unfairly restrict consumer choice and hamper competition. In a letter, the four asked that the Commission specifically consider the following:

• Whether exclusivity agreements are becoming increasingly prevalent between dominant wireless carriers and handset manufacturers

 

• Whether exclusivity agreements are restricting consumer choice with respect to which handsets are available depending on a consumer’s geographic region, particularly for consumers living in rural America

 

• Whether exclusivity agreements place limitations on a consumer’s ability to take full advantage of handset technologies, such as the ability to send multimedia messages or the ability to “tether” a device to a computer for Internet use.

 

• Whether exclusivity agreements are manipulating the competitive marketplace between commercial wireless carriers. Specifically, whether the ability for a dominant carrier to reach an exclusive agreement with a handset manufacturer is inhibiting the ability of smaller, more regional carriers to compete

 

• Whether exclusivity agreements play a role in encouraging or discouraging innovation within the handset marketplace

An interesting list and one that seems to single out AT&T, though it doesn’t mention the carrier by name. Indeed, limiting “a consumer’s ability to take full advantage of handset technologies, such as the ability to send multimedia messages or the ability to ‘tether’ a device to a computer for Internet use” is exactly what AT&T will do later this week when the iPhone 3G S and iPhone OS 3.0 debut without the carrier’s support for their new tethering and MMS capabilities.

And then there’s this: The iPhone 3G S is compatible with high-speed packet access 7.2 technology, which offers theoretical peak download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. But AT&T doesn’t plan to begin deploying HSPA 7.2 until later this year and the company doesn’t expect to complete the rollout until 2011.

Finally, the company’s refusal to sell the iPhone in rural areas where it provides only roaming coverage certainly restricts “consumer choice with respect to which handsets are available depending on a consumer’s geographic region, particularly for consumers living in rural America.”

Clearly, if the senators responsible for this letter were looking for a case study for the problems with exclusive carrier-device agreements, they’ve got one ready-made in AT&T.

At work I am told to turn off my desktop PC at the end of the day. My wife’s office tells her to leave her computer on overnight. My former employer said to turn off the monitor but leave the PC on. What’s right?

Given the energy, environmental and economic crises, my view is that you should completely shut down both your computer and your monitor any time they will be unused for more than a few hours. And, of course, you should set them to go into sleep mode after they are idle for far less time than that. To be honest, I myself am not always faithful to that advice, but I am resolved to get better at it.

Of course, there are some nuances to the issue of overnight shutdowns. If you, or your company, routinely perform important operations overnight, like backups or security scans or system tune-ups, then you have to leave the computer on, but you should still turn off the monitor.

How much memory do you recommend for a new computer running Vista Home Premium?

Two gigabytes minimum, and three gigabytes if your budget can handle it. The latter is roughly the maximum that popular consumer versions of Vista (called 32-bit versions) can use.

For smooth, quick operation in common tasks, it’s been my experience that Vista demands more memory than either Windows XP or Apple’s Leopard operating system. And the need for added memory rises if your PC uses “shared” video memory, which means your graphics system lacks its own dedicated memory and relies on draining the main memory. This arrangement is common in less expensive computers.

We are planning a trip to the British Isles this summer with a side trip to Brussels. We plan to bring our iPhone on the trip. What is the current situation with using European networks? Will my U.S. AT&T account just work or do I need to make pre-arrangements? I realize my iPhone won’t be able to access the faster 3G networks over there, but can I use slower networks? Being limited to Wi-Fi would be a bummer.

The iPhone 3G can indeed handle 3G networks in Europe, though the original iPhone can handle only slower networks. Both models can use Wi-Fi there.

You will need to call AT&T before you leave, though, and “provision,” or set up, your account, for international roaming. Note that such roaming is expensive, with very high rates for both voice use and data use. AT&T has some monthly add-on plans that cut these fees, but, if I were you, I would turn off data roaming until and unless I needed it; do most email and Web surfing via Wi-Fi; and consider downloading Truphone, a voice-calling program that uses Wi-Fi instead of cellphone networks.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about using an iPhone overseas for data purposes, running Microsoft Office 2000 on Vista and using broadband-provider email in two locations.

You recently wrote that iPhone owners using the device overseas must roam on AT&T at high rates, because the iPhone won’t work with SIM cards from foreign carriers. You noted that AT&T has a monthly plan that cuts these per-call voice rates somewhat. But what are the options for using an iPhone overseas for data purposes, such as email and Internet browsing?

Until Apple initiates iPhone service with foreign carriers, which is expected to be a gradual process that will begin in Europe, iPhone owners traveling abroad will be forced to roam on AT&T and to pay through the nose for data as well as voice calls made over cellular-phone networks. They won’t be able to buy cheaper service from a local foreign carrier and enable it by simply replacing the phone’s AT&T SIM card with the local carrier’s.

In addition, it is important to note that, even if you are willing to swallow these huge voice-and-data rates, you must call AT&T (formerly Cingular) before you leave the U.S. with your iPhone (or any AT&T phone) to modify, or “provision,” your calling plan so it will even work overseas.

Here are the details. Note that these prices and plans apply to many other phones AT&T sells, not just the iPhone.

To recap the voice-calling situation, AT&T charges very high fees, which can be mitigated a bit by adding a special $5.99 monthly add-on feature, called AT&T World Traveler, to their plans. This voice feature allows you to roam in 190 countries and gives you discounts on calls from 80 countries. For instance, in France, Italy, Germany, and Britain, you pay a still-high 99 cents a minute, compared with an even worse $1.29 without the plan. In Hong Kong or Israel, you pay a whopping $1.99 a minute, instead of an even more outrageous $2.29 or $2.49, respectively, a minute.

For email and the Web, the best bet for iPhone owners is to avoid using cellular networks and employ the phone’s Wi-Fi capability, which can cost nothing extra. Try to find a free or reasonably priced Wi-Fi hot spot in which to check email and do Web browsing. You may even be able to make cheap voice calls this way using Internet-based calling services like JaJah (mobile.jajah.com) which, in my domestic tests, worked properly via the iPhone’s Web browser.

However, if you need to check email constantly or frequently, you are unlikely to be able to depend solely on the Wi-Fi method. You can rely on AT&T roaming to do this over foreign cellular services, but, as with the voice call situation, it will cost a fortune.

AT&T offers an add-on plan for $24.99 a month, called the “PDA/Smartphone/iPhone International Data Plan.” This is on top of the $5.99-a-month voice plan, and is also additive to the $20 a month for unlimited data when in the U.S. that is built into your base plan. But it isn’t unlimited. You get only 20 megabytes of overseas data use a month, and pay a stiff $.005 a kilobyte for all data use above that.

Plus, this international-data plan only works in 29 countries. Outside those countries, the cost is an astounding $.0195 a kilobyte, or roughly $20 a megabyte. To put that in perspective, a single email with a medium-resolution picture attached could amount to a megabyte. More information is at www.att.com/wirelessinternational.

One more note: apparently AT&T can and will cancel your roaming service overseas if it notices what it considers an unusually high number of calls being made. One reader with an iPhone reported that, after arranging belatedly in Europe to get the voice-roaming service, he was suddenly cut off when he reached India, with AT&T explaining the cutoff as an attempt to prevent suspected fraud.

According to this reader, AT&T said he had been cut off “because there were ‘too many calls from India and other countries’ and they did not think it was possible anyone could be doing that for real, so to protect me, they cancelled the service.” An AT&T spokesman says the company can’t comment on the details of this particular case without knowing the traveler’s phone number.

You say Office 2003 runs OK on Windows Vista. I have been using Office 2000 and it does everything I need. Will it also run OK on Vista?

Microsoft doesn’t officially support Office 2000 on Vista. It may work, but I haven’t tested it.

Is there a way that I can use my same email address both at my home in New Jersey and at my winter place in Florida, even though I have broadband Internet service in New Jersey but am limited to dial-up Internet access from a different provider in Florida?

Some broadband providers also make available a supplementary dial-up service for their customers, which may be free or cost extra. Check with your broadband service to see if it offers this option.

If not, you could simply use an email account that isn’t necessarily tied to an access provider at all, such as Web-based email services from Yahoo, Google or Microsoft. You could switch to one of these permanently, and use it in both locations, or you can forward your main email address to one of them while you are in Florida. People who send you email wouldn’t have to learn a new address and many Web-based services allow you to set your main address as the “reply-to” address for emails you send.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Many of us Sprint customers received a letter at the beginning of this month declaring that our Sprint account will be canceled on July 30 due to the amount of roaming we are doing. The letter stated that they believe that another carrier will be able to serve us better and that we are recieving the boot.

“… This is the icing on the top as far as Sprint Customer Service goes. Why on Earth I can’t get coverage at the United States Military Academy, 40 minutes away from New York City, is a mystery to me. I had a cellphone the entire time I was in Iraq with a Middle Eastern company. I payed LESS to call home and keep in touch from the other side of the world than I do now with Sprint to call within the country. It also did not matter if I was in a major city or out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, I ALWAYS had full coverage. Never had a dropped call, and the customer reps of that company spoke better English than those with Sprint do.”

–An anonymous U.S. soldier who had his Sprint contract terminated for excessive domestic roaming

Here’s a novel, albeit labor-intensive, way of ditching your Sprint contract to get an iPhone. Call the company’s customer-support center relentlessly until it terminates your service. After a recent internal review, Sprint canceled the contracts of 1,000 customers because they’d been making far too many calls to its support centers. An astonishing move for a company that’s been on a campaign to shirk its reputation for abysmal coverage and even worse customer service.

But not nearly as astonishing as its decision to waive the termination fees of the customers it fires. (It will be even more astonishing if the company agrees to pay $200 in termination fees to each of the customers, as Mindy Bockstein, chairwoman of New York’s Consumer Protection Board, has asked). “Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information,” Sprint explained in a letter to some of its customers. “While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs…”

Apparently, Sprint is finally finishing its pioneering work on DCRM (Dissociative Customer Relationship Management) systems …

Now, in all fairness, the 1,000 or so subscribers whose contracts Sprint canceled accounted for 40,000 calls per month–according to Sprint. And, really, 1,000 isn’t such a large number when compared to Sprint’s total user base–about 53 million. Finally, Sprint insiders say these problem costumers were truly pains-in-the-ass. “These were the customers that had nothing to do but call us every single day demanding credit,” a Sprint employee told Consumerist. “And they were getting it because customer care was getting exhausted from arguing with them. So, a nickel at a time, these customers were collecting literally thousands of dollars in credit balances. … Ten months of calling customer care and telling us how badly they hated us and threatening to cancel to get more credits… And one day we say, ‘OK. We’ll credit your balance, waive your contracts and you’re free to be happy.’ And then they don’t like the ink the letter was written with. Kills me. I’d be devastated if I got a letter like that from a company I do business with. But if I hated them I’d gladly walk away in a situation like that.”

I suppose you might. Especially if you truly had problems with Sprint’s service that you were having trouble resolving–which, given the company’s reputation for lousy customer service, is a distinct possibility.

Many of us Sprint customers received a letter at the beginning of this month declaring that our Sprint account will be canceled on July 30 due to the amount of roaming we are doing. The letter stated that they believe that another carrier will be able to serve us better and that we are recieving the boot.

“… This is the icing on the top as far as Sprint Customer Service goes. Why on Earth I can’t get coverage at the United States Military Academy, 40 minutes away from New York City, is a mystery to me. I had a cellphone the entire time I was in Iraq with a Middle Eastern company. I payed LESS to call home and keep in touch from the other side of the world than I do now with Sprint to call within the country. It also did not matter if I was in a major city or out in the middle of nowhere in the desert, I ALWAYS had full coverage. Never had a dropped call, and the customer reps of that company spoke better English than those with Sprint do.”

–An anonymous U.S. soldier who had his Sprint contract terminated for excessive domestic roaming

Here’s a novel, albeit labor-intensive, way of ditching your Sprint contract to get an iPhone. Call the company’s customer-support center relentlessly until it terminates your service. After a recent internal review, Sprint canceled the contracts of 1,000 customers because they’d been making far too many calls to its support centers. An astonishing move for a company that’s been on a campaign to shirk its reputation for abysmal coverage and even worse customer service.

But not nearly as astonishing as its decision to waive the termination fees of the customers it fires. (It will be even more astonishing if the company agrees to pay $200 in termination fees to each of the customers, as Mindy Bockstein, chairwoman of New York’s Consumer Protection Board, has asked). “Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information,” Sprint explained in a letter to some of its customers. “While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs…”

Apparently, Sprint is finally finishing its pioneering work on DCRM (Dissociative Customer Relationship Management) systems …

Now, in all fairness, the 1,000 or so subscribers whose contracts Sprint canceled accounted for 40,000 calls per month–according to Sprint. And, really, 1,000 isn’t such a large number when compared to Sprint’s total user base–about 53 million. Finally, Sprint insiders say these problem costumers were truly pains-in-the-ass. “These were the customers that had nothing to do but call us every single day demanding credit,” a Sprint employee told Consumerist. “And they were getting it because customer care was getting exhausted from arguing with them. So, a nickel at a time, these customers were collecting literally thousands of dollars in credit balances. … Ten months of calling customer care and telling us how badly they hated us and threatening to cancel to get more credits… And one day we say, ‘OK. We’ll credit your balance, waive your contracts and you’re free to be happy.’ And then they don’t like the ink the letter was written with. Kills me. I’d be devastated if I got a letter like that from a company I do business with. But if I hated them I’d gladly walk away in a situation like that.”

I suppose you might. Especially if you truly had problems with Sprint’s service that you were having trouble resolving–which, given the company’s reputation for lousy customer service, is a distinct possibility.