The FCC is asking the major wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless — to explain their Early Termination Fees. And from Google, they want to know why it’s charging an “Equipment Recovery Fee” for the Nexus One, over and above the ETF charged by T-Mobile:

Google’s introduction of the Nexus One handset presents consumers with new options for obtaining mobile wireless service, from a new entrant in the wireless phone market. The Commission welcomes new choices for consumers and new entry into the market because it recognizes that robust competition benefits consumers by accommodating the wide variety of consumers’ communications needs.

At the same time, where new options may subject consumers to substantial ETFs, potentially from more than one entity, the Commission has a special interest in ensuring that consumers have a clear and complete understanding of the rates, terms, and conditions on which the communications services are being offered and the rationale for those rates, terms, and conditions. The combination of ETFs from Google and T-Mobile for the Nexus One is also unique among the four major national carriers. Consumers have been surprised by this policy and by its financial impact. Please let us know your rationale(s) for these combined fees, and whether you have coordinated or will coordinate on these fees and on the disclosure of their combined effect.

In other Nexus One news, The Big Money notes that while Wal-Mart‘s site looked ready to sell the Nexus One, Bentonville now says it has no plans to carry the Nexus One in its stores or online.