The End of “Bill Shock”

“Bill Shock” is the terminology used to describe an unexpected increase on your cell phone bill without changes to the plan due to overages.  Now it seems those days may be numbered.

According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) mobile service providers have agreed, without new regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to alert consumers who are about to exceed the limits of their plan in an act to prevent overages.  The alerts from the mobile service providers would include voice, text, data, and roaming usage.

Charges attributed to overage can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars on a monthly basis.  For example, 67% of the complaints received by the (FCC) involved fees in excess of $100 while 20% were at least $1,000 or more.  In addition, the FCC revealed that 84% of Americans who experienced “bill shock” said they were not notified by their wireless provider when they were about to exceed their limits, while 88% said they were never contacted by their mobile service provider after they went over the plan’s limits.

According to Steve Largent, president of the CTIA, partial notification for data, voice, texting, or international roaming will be available by October of 2012, and by April of 2013, full notification will be in place.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stated they would take a “trust but verify approach and put regulatory action on hold for the time being.” He further stated that “this is a victory for more than 200 million wireless consumers.”

Kellep Charles is completing his Doctorate in Information Assurance at Capitol College. He covers information security, privacy and safety issues for SecurityOrb.com (@securityorb). Follow Kellep on Twitter at @kellepc. His e-mail address is kellep [at] securityorb [dot] com.

More on Politic365

• House Subcommittee Passes Repeal of Net Neutrality Rules
• Rep. Hank Johnson Introduces Arbitration Fairness Act to Protect Legal Rights of Consumers
• Advocates for the African American Community Taking a ‘Fair and Balanced’ Approach to News Corp.

2 Responses to The End of “Bill Shock”

1. WHitiker says:

   12:36pm October 24, 2011 at 12:36 pm

   The title to this article should read: The End of Bill Shock excuse. I mean seriously. Tracfone introduced the prepaid method to the wireless market many many years ago, and people can't seriously still be claiming ignorance. It is however a very positive step, and will certainly combat prepaid's claim of sooo much better control – it's merely so much better now. It might even mean that seniors can opt for post paid options now too,m instead of only being reliant on their SVC tracfones.

   Reply
2. Rachel says:

   9:02pm October 24, 2011 at 9:02 pm

   Why wait for cell phone companies to take this initiative? I use Telicost-Lite, which gives me the alerts I need to stay on track with voice, data, SMS and roaming. And, it’s a free download for Android, iPhone and Blackberry.

   Reply