Being European, I'm amazed that the US carriers have been able to keep their stranglehold over the phones for so long. Over here, the carriers have no say over which phone I put on their network, and which features that phones has. They can't cripple the phones, limit the phones, or force some sort of default configuration that gives them money if I accidentally push a button.

I have no idea how you could break that stranglehold though, and I've never really seen any good debate on it, only outrage and acceptance of defeat?

I hit that web button quite often (I have a verizon phone). I just hit "End" and I've never been charged for data. Of course, I don't have a data plan in the first place, so that's one way to avoid it.

The charge only hits people without the data plan. (Even if you have their crappy data plan, you'll have enough monthly allowance to eat a few kb of mistakes without seeing specific charges for it)

The reason people consider it 'scammy' is precisely because there's no way for normal people to avoid the charge(1). They can't remap the key. They can't just not get a data plan. They can't even block data service (technically they can, but they still get charged if they hit the button and it sends back the block message). etc.

Sure, if you hit End fast enough you don't get billed. But does that make it unreasonable to say "I should be able to turn this off altogether"?

(1) I suspect you can deliberately 'break' the data connection settings in the admin menu. This should prevent you from ever completing a data connection and thereby avoiding charges. Though I don't know if that's still possible on current versions of Verizon's crappy phone OS.

On Verizon's website, you can change your account settings to block data entirely. I've done that for my girlfriend's phone, she doesn't need it, doesn't want it, and just blocking it was the easiest way to prevent accidents like that.

It's pointed out explicitly in the article that such action does not work.

Feel free to try the following: Have her hit the button. Don't hit End; let the phone do its thing and reply that you don't have data access. Consult your monthly bill.

I've done that accidently, several times, while using her phone. The phone never loads the home page, just sits at the blue "loading" screen.

Me neither! And I'm a pretty technically savvy person. What a disgrace. Where in the universe is it written that certain industries (mobile phones, used cars, health insurance) will be overrun by sleazebags?..

In the FTC/FCC legislations/deregulations; Europe doesn't have these problems.