FCC launches website for wireless 'bill shock'

The Federal Communications Commission has launched a website tracking wireless carriers' efforts to alert consumers if they approach the limits of the cellphone and data plans. The page is part of an agreement reached between the FCC and the CTIA wireless trade association in October to help users avoid high-priced overage charges on their monthly bills.

The "bill shock" website features a checklist for voice, data, SMS/text and international roaming, highlighting whether each wireless company offers alerts to customers who may go over the peak of their phone plans.

Wireless carriers that provide 97 percent of service to United States customers agreed in October to voluntarily alert customers if they were unknowingly exceeding their plan limits for data, voice, text, or when traveling abroad, incurred international roaming charges. They did so to avoid proposed FCC rules requiring such notification.

The commission said 1 in 6, or about 30 million customers, had experienced unexpected charges on their wireless plans. In 2010, the FCC said, it received about 800 complaints from consumers, some with outrageous bills in the thousands of dollars.

Read more -here-

• Dropbox breach exposes customer credentials, authentication data
• Google: Passkey authentications top 1 billion across 400 million accounts
• FTC fines Razer for misrepresenting COVID masks as N95s
• FCC fines Verizon, AT&T other major carriers nearly $200 million for sharing customer data
• Federal regulators accuse Amazon executives of deleting messages
• FCC restores net neutrality rules