Most Americans Now Receive Bill Shock Alerts, FCC Says
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski largely claimed victory Wednesday on commission efforts to curb so-called “wireless bill shock” without imposing new rules, saying the top U.S. carriers are now offering alerts. But commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC needs to keep regulation alive as a possibility.
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A year ago, the FCC, CTIA and Consumers Union unveiled “Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines” as an alternative to bill shock rules proposed by the agency in 2010 (CD Oct 18/11 p1). The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, as expected (CD Oct 17 p1), said in a report to the commission that carriers signing the agreement had met a Wednesday deadline to offer subscribers free alerts for at least two of the four categories when subscribers approach or exceed plan limits for data, voice and text and provide alerts for international charges. The bureau also said carriers appear on track to offer all four required alerts by a second deadline date of April 17.
The FCC also posted an update to its bill shock webpage, providing information on carrier compliance efforts to date (http://xrl.us/bnuir9). The agreements cover about 96 percent of all U.S. wireless subscribers.
Last year the FCC “put our rulemaking on hold and said we would take a trust but verify approach” on bill shock, Genachowski said. “Today we can verify that carriers are living up to their commitments.” “Chairman Genachowski has made eliminating bill shock a central part of the Commission’s Consumer Empowerment Agenda,” said an FCC press release.
The FCC should not refrain from taking action if the success story doesn’t continue, Clyburn said. “It remains my hope that the commission will not hesitate to act if, despite these voluntary efforts, enforcement actions are still necessary to protect consumers,” she said. “Nobody should need to hire a lawyer to understand their wireless contract and nobody should need to hire an accountant to explain their wireless bill,” Rosenworcel said. “The commission needs to remain the cop on the beat."
But the FCC’s two Republican commissioners, Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai, said the FCC’s approach on bill shock shows that regulation isn’t always the best approach to solving problems when they arise. The voluntary industry solution should serve as a “model for future nongovernmental solutions to challenges faced by American consumers,” McDowell said. “I have long held that cooperative efforts, rather than forced mandates, yield the best results."
The progress on bill shock is “good news for consumers,” Consumers Union said. “U.S. wireless providers have a strong history of competing against one another on a variety of user-friendly tools so consumers may understand and track their usage,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. “Today’s announcement is another demonstration of this exemplary history of customer service."
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., lauded the work done by carriers to notify consumers of their usage statistics, to prevent “bill shock.” The author of the Cell Phone Bill Shock Act (S-732) said the carriers’ new alerts “will help American consumers and families avoid unexpected charges,” in a news release Wednesday.