The Rural Cellular Association and The Rural Telecommunications Group are both fighting pending actions by the Federal Communications Commission to implement an automatic mandate for wireless carriers to aid their customers in avoiding “bill shock,” saying the proposed regulation would be too expensive for smaller carriers.
The FCC is defining bill shock as a sudden and unexpected increase in monthly bills not caused by a change in service plans. The commission states that reasons for “bill shock” include unclear or misunderstood advertising, unanticipated roaming or data charges, and other non-descript problems. A recent survey conducted by the FCC revealed that 30 million Americans, or one in six mobile users, have experienced “bill shock,” although CTIA has questioned the results of the survey.
The proposed rule would require carriers to provide usage alerts when customers approach and reach monthly limits that would result in overage charges and when a customer is about to incur roaming or international charges if those features are not covered in their plan.
Officials from the RCA and RTG counter the FCC’s pending mandate by proposing that each individual carrier be considered before rural and regional carriers are forced to comply, raising the costs of customer service and management programs.
In a statement, Steven Berry, president and CEO of RCA, urged the FCC to allow for self-regulation and proposed that consumers would benefit greater from a mandate on interoperability throughout the 700 MHz band, an end to handset exclusivity and another mandate on automatic data roaming.
“Where is the data or empirical study by the FCC?,” said Berry. “Automated responses are some of the most costly infrastructure capital investments. The proportional cost per person (on smaller carriers) could be staggering.”
In a statement from the RTG, the group agrees that reconfiguring systems to notify customers is costly and asks the FCC to exempt small carriers of 100,000 subscribers or less should any part of the proposed rule be amended.
