House Bill 110: Wireless Telephone Service Billing Change Notification Act

Do you own a cell phone? Most adults I know do. Cell phones seem to have become a necessity of modern-day American life. My daily activities would be significantly different if I didn't have my cell phone with me. Not only do I use it to communicate with my family and friends, but I use it to take photos, set alarms, record to-do lists, send text messages, browse the internet, tell time, etc.

As ubiquitous as cell phones have become, it seems that nearly everyone I know has some nightmare story of being overcharged by their cell phone providers. Very often the cause of the overcharge is a misunderstanding or miscommunication between the customer and the wireless provider. Often notification of increased charges are buried deep within huge monthly billing statements that are extremely dense and don't lend themselves to easy analysis. The problem is that often such charges go unnoticed for months before any corrective action is taken leading to many wasted dollars.

Here is a simple example of what I'm talking about: My own monthly cell phone bill is usually between $120 and $140 per month depending on how much I use it. My cell-phone company offers a service called "picture-mail" which allows me to email photos taken on my cell phone to any email address. The cost for this great service is $5 per month. The Picture-mail service can be activated by calling the phone company and requesting it... or it can be activated simply by accessing a menu on my phone and pressing some buttons.

I have a lovely 21-month old daughter. She is a doll. She also loves to play with Daddy's cell phone and press buttons. She (or even I!) might mistakenly order the Picture-mail service. The extra $5 monthly charge on my bill would very likely go unnoticed by me for a very long time... Even if I didn't mean to order it.

There are numerous other examples (which don't involve a baby pressing phone buttons) where I have seen changes in monthly billing rates go unnoticed for a long time. Some of them have been caused be errors by cell phone company staff. So I have introduced House Bill 110: The Wireless Telephone Billing Change Notification Act.

This bill mandates that that "a wireless telephone service provider shall send written notice to a residential customer within 10 days of any change in the rates, terms or conditions of the customer's wireless telephone service." The legislation also stipulates that such a notice must be sent by US Mail "separately from a bill or other correspondence".

This legislation would ensure that if your monthly cell phone bill changes (increase or decrease) for any reason, you will be notified and there won't be any surprises.

You can read the actual text of the legislation by clicking here.

- Saqib