After inquiries from the FCC regarding early termination fees charged by carriers, you’d think they would be a little more careful about blatantly ripping off customers.  Ha! Just kidding, cell carriers aren’t afraid of the FCC.

AT&T plans to up its early termination fee from $175 to $350 on June 1st.

Coincidentally, that’s right before the new iPhone comes out.  There are two ways to go with this.  The first scenario is the most likely - that AT&T simply wants to cash in on people pulling the cancel-your-account-and-sign-back-up-for-a-subsidized-iPhone maneuver.  Or that the new iPhone costs so much that to subsidize it, they have to charge a higher ETF.  

The second option is that I was wrong, a CDMA iPhone really is in the works, it’s closer than we think, and AT&T is desperately trying to prevent customers from leaving its notoriously spotty network once it’s no longer the only iPhone game in town.

Either way, unless AT&T announces some special deals for current iPhone customers, you’ll be left with two options.  Incur the $350 fee, cancel and reup your account, and get a subsidized iPhone.  Or if you don’t qualify for an “early upgrade,” pony the $600-700 (possibly more) for an unsubsidized iPhone.  Neither of these are particularly compelling, but there’s a third option.

Cancel your account now, and switch to another carrier until the 4th generation iPhone comes out.

Sprint and Verizon offer a 30 day trial period with no commitment.  Canceling your AT&T account before June 1st with only incur the current $175 ETF.  Then just switch back to AT&T when the new iPhone comes out (theoretically within the first two weeks of June).  They’ll welcome you back with a subsidized rate on a brand new 4th generation iPhone, and a contract you can’t cancel for less than the price of a cheap car.

Hey remember that thing about Verizon not getting the iPhone until at least 2012? Turns out I was right.  If you’re on Verizon and you want an iPhone, it’s time to pony up that absolutely ludicrous ETF and switch to AT&T.  But you might want to wait until July then the new one comes out.  Until then, you may want to give the Kin a shot.  The reviews actually aren’t bad, and it’s certainly one of the more interesting products Verizon has had in awhile.

I get it, guys.  Seriously.  Everyone I know who doesn’t have an iPhone has one of two reasons.

1. They’re on their mom’s family plan and she won’t switch carriers.
2. They’re on a company plan.

And that’s nothing to be ashamed of.  You’re cheap, you’re owned by your company, whatever.  But if you’re a journalist, you have something of an (oh god I can hear people laughing) obligation to report well-researched, or at least plausible facts.  The latest article cites the following highly credible sources:

• “People familiar with the situation”
• “People familiar with the device”
• “People briefed by the company”

And, none of those people said anything about Verizon.  Just CDMA.  So, employees of WSJ, with your Blackberries; I sympathize, I really do.  But Apple isn’t going to make a Verizon iPhone just because you write an article every week, predicting it.

One “we told you so!” isn’t worth years of bad journalism and failed predictions.