New Yorker Gamel Ghazi used to fight with his two teenage boys over texting charges that ranged from $20 to $100 per month. One month, he canceled the data plan for the phones, only to see his kids run up $120 in charges for extra voice minutes on the next bill.
“They should let people know before they have to pay extra,” said Mr. Ghazi, a van driver who takes people to medical appointments. “For texts and for voice minutes, too.”
Officials at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed just that. The agency is considering requiring wireless companies to send a text message or other real-time alert to subscribers on the verge of racking up pricey charges for exceeding their plan’s data or text-messaging limit.
The proposal aims to reduce so-called “bill shock,” and is similar to rules enacted in March in the European Union after consumers complained about inadvertently amassing large data-roaming charges while traveling. The EU now requires carriers to warn consumers when they’re getting close to their data roaming limits and allows customers to automatically cut off service if they exceed their limits.
The FCC’s proposal is part of a broader inquiry into how to overhaul “truth in billing” rules to provide consumers with more information about the services they’re receiving, such as data speeds, and what all those line charges on phone bills actually mean.
“This very simple solution of requiring text or voice alerts when someone is getting into dangerous territory could be helpful,” said Joel Gurin, head of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. “Our sense is that this has not been a particularly difficult thing to implement in the EU and the same principle could be applied in the U.S.”
He said the agency has received hundreds of complaints about excessive charges.
Websites are full of horror stories like the tale of an $18,000 phone bill received by a Boston-area couple after their son mistakenly thought their family plan included unlimited data service. (It didn’t.) But when most consumers run into trouble, they’re facing overage charges in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars.
“This is a helpful first step down what we hope will be a much longer road to provide wireless consumers with relief and protection in the marketplace,” said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. “When a consumer signs up for wireless service, they don’t expect to receive a monthly bill that can sometimes equal the cost of a used car.”
