bills

You might finally have some peace of mind about your cellphone bill if a new initiative being spearheaded by Joel Gurin, the head of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, becomes a reality. Designed to eliminate “bill shock”, the system would notify mobile subscribers via an unspecified method if their current cellphone usage is likely to result in a bill that is significantly higher than their monthly plan. A similar practice has been in place in the European Union since 2009. Said Gurin: “We’re issuing a Public Notice to see if there’s any reason that American carriers can’t use similar automatic alerts to inform consumers when they are at risk of running up a high bill. This is an avoidable problem. Avoiding bill shock is good for consumers and ultimately good business for wireless carriers as well.” Score one for the government, or are you the sort of person that prefers to handle your own messes? More →