FCC

The nation's biggest telephone companies want you to believe that soaring cell phone bills are in our future -- if their demands for more wireless bandwidth aren't met. Is this a clear signal of what's to come, or just a lot of static?

AT&T said Monday that it is ending its $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile USA after facing fierce government objections. The cellphone giant said that the actions of the government to block the deal do not change the challenges of the wireless phone industry, which it says requires more airwaves, known as spectrum, to expand. The deal would have solved that problem for a time, and without it, "customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled," AT&T said in a statement.

Since 2008, the Federal Communications Commission has received nearly 6,000 complaints about excessively loud TV commercials. But on Wednesday, the FCC adopted rules to enforce the 2010 Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, requiring that TV ads have the same average volume as the programs they accompany.

Federal regulators have unveiled a plan for overhauling the $8 billion fund that subsidizes phone service in rural areas and for the poor, one that will redirect money toward broadband expansion. The FCC's plan, adopted Thursday, establishes a new "Connect America Fund" for mobile telephone and broadband in rural communities and needy areas.

The gradual addition of extra fees to your cellphone bill can be a bit like gaining weight -- you don't keep track of your habits, until one day you open your bill and experience "bill shock." The FCC thinks you deserve advanced warning, and starting soon, your cell provider will have to give it to you.

Cramming: It's a multibillion dollar con that cheats millions of Americans every year. But because it uses small charges, hidden as deceptively legit sounding fees embedded on phone bills, victims may not notice for months or years. DailyFinance readers share how they got scammed -- and how they fought back.

DailyFinance readers tell us they're frustrated and angry about phone cramming, or the practice of cheating customers by adding illegitimate charges to their phone bills. If you've been a victim of phone cramming, we want to hear about it.

Almost 30 years ago, the government's breakup of AT&T changed how telecom billed customers, and scammers discovered a loophole that let them slip unauthorized fees onto consumers' monthly phone bills. Since then, "cramming" has grown into a multibillion dollar a year con game.

Earlier this week, the FCC proposed new rules designed to crack down on "phone cramming," a widespread, illegal practice that robs billions of dollars from phone users. And with 300 million third-party charges hidden in phone bills every year, odds are, you've been a victim.

AT&T threatens to become the Moby-Dick of the mobile world if it succeeds in swallowing T-Mobile whole, but this controversial merger is far from a done deal -- political pressures and consumer objections threaten to imperil it. And there's more at stake here than a marriage of two companies.