FCC 'bill shock' proceeding draws criticism, praise

CTIA came out swinging in its response to the Federal Communications Commission’s public notice on how U.S. wireless consumers can avoid experiencing “bill shock,” a term the trade group says is not properly defined in what it considers a flawed FCC survey.
A total of 275 comments were filed in the federal agency’s proceeding on whether the United States should mandate that wireless providers offer usage alerts and cut-off mechanisms similar to what is required in the European Union regarding international roaming rates. Reply comments are due July 19.
In its comments, CTIA said only 13% of the 3,000 people surveyed by the FCC said they experienced unexpected increases in their wireless bills from month to month, including increases as small as $1. Further, the trade lobbying group said the agency never asked whether higher bills came from increased usage by the end user, or put a timeframe on when consumers had experienced higher bills. CTIA also criticized the term “bill shock,” noting the FCC never used the term in its survey questions.
On the other side, 14 consumers organizations, including the Consumers Union, Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation, said federal law is needed to force carriers to warn customers about going over their allotted voice, data and text minutes, as well as clearer pricing in advertising messages and better warnings on roaming charges.
“Of those experiencing “bill shock” over one-third of those bill increases were $50 and above – in essence resulting in cost increases to consumers of at least double their standard monthly bill for cell-phone service,” the consumers groups said. “As U.S. providers increasingly shift away from unlimited data plans to more tiered offerings with strict usage limits such as AT&T’s new data plans, the chance of consumes incurring expensive overage charges is likely to increase.”
CTIA argued that consumers have a variety of ways to find out if they are near their usage allotments, including carriers that send messages to customers, third-party applications that can be downloaded to handsets and prepaid options for people who are concerned about going over their monthly allotments. The trade group also said that service providers that have to implement new billing solutions to comply with new laws likely will follow the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law, stifling innovation.
Interestingly, CTIA said that a telemarketing sales rules proceeding in front of the Federal Trade Commission could impact its ability to send customers alerts that they are nearing their usage limits. That proceeding would require consumers to implicitly consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded messages from carriers.