A study commissioned by the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) in 2010 found that one out of every six American's have experienced "bill shock" at one point or another. About a third said they received bills that were $50 higher than they expected, and nearly a quarter said it was by more than a hundred bucks. The FCC, along with the CTIA and Consumers Union, will try to make bill shock a thing of a past by implementing industry wide changes designed to keep wireless users better informed.
According to eWeek, the new regulation tasks network operators with sending out voice or text message alerts to users who creep up on their data limits. Users would also receive alerts when they're about to be hit with international roaming charges, like a guy who incurred over $28,000 watching a football game on his laptop while sitting docked in a Miami port. It will also be mandatory to disclose tools that let subscribers monitor data usage and roaming charges.
"The goal was to change practices to benefit the consumer," FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said. "Consistent with the FCC's ongoing efforts, these actions harness technology to empower consumers, and ensure consumers get a fair shake, not bill shock."
This is all part of CITA's "Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines," which will become part of CTIA's "Consumer Code for Wireless Service." Wireless carriers will have until October 17, 2012 to implement at least two of the four notifications for data, voice, text, and international roaming, and must be all-in by April 17, 2013.
Comments are closed on this article
Menetia
October 18, 2011 at 11:43pm
Nothing is worse than opening the cellular phone bill to discover it is way more than it should. It is often referred to as “bill shock,” and it occurs to a lot of people. The cellular carrier market and federal regulators have just reached an agreement that could keep it from happening anymore, as providers have decided to start giving more advanced notice. It is good to know that Cell phone carriers and FCC reach agreement over bill shock .
compro01
October 18, 2011 at 7:15am
Desired changes : AT&T and Verizon chopped back into little bitty pieces again so maybe competition can work.
Or just nationalize the whole freaking infastructure and have carriers rent transit at cost on it so we can have a level playing field and real competition.
tekknyne
October 17, 2011 at 8:53am
2 cents a kilobyte? .... Wow. I can't remember the last time I measured anything in kilobytes. And AT&T did this last year? They must really be hurtin' to micromanage data charges to that level.
tekknyne
October 17, 2011 at 9:05am
Woops, my reponse was to the previous artlicle that you linked about the $28k phone bill. And it was in 2009. Still though.
Print
