Cell Phone 'Bill Shock' Is History Thanks to New FCC Rules
Under FCC rules that went into effect Wednesday, cell phone carriers are required to alert customers when they're at risk of incurring overage charges.
Under FCC rules that went into effect Wednesday, cell phone carriers are required to alert customers when they're at risk of incurring overage charges.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat appointed by President Obama, plans to announce his resignation Friday. His departure creates a second vacancy on the 5-member FCC.
You may not have heard about the CALM Act before, but when you witness the results of the law, which goes into effect today, you'll probably want to applaud loudly. At last, TV commercials can no longer be broadcast at a higher volume than the programs they accompany.
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.
Major cellular carriers will soon begin to carry emergency text alerts for the U.S. government in the event of major disasters, turning the mobile devices of 250 million people into emergency alert devices.
Regulators have begun to take a long, hard look at whether the AT&T buyout of T-Mobile would create a quasi-monopoly in the American cellular carrier industry. If those antitrust concerns sink the deal, AT&T could be in real trouble, because cellular is its only clear hope for growth.
Comcast has a tight grip on Philadelphia sports fans with its SportsNet Philadelphia channel, which has been the exclusive carrier of games from the Phillies, Flyers and 76ers. But now Comcast will have to make the channel available to satellite-TV providers, thanks to FCC-approved terms of its deal for NBC Universal.
The Federal Communications Commission has granted permission for nine companies, including Google, to turn unused broadcast frequencies -- also known as "white spaces" -- into wireless broadband.
Earlier this week, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., warned that if the Comcast acquisition of NBC Universal went through, the company may pull NBC's programming from Netflix. Federal regulators approved the deal Tuesday.
Verizon Communications on Thursday filed a legal challenge against the new "net neutrality" rules the Federal Communications Commission adopted last month. Does Internet discrimination serve a purpose?
Comcast got an early Christmas present Thursday, when the Federal Communications Commission chairman approved its huge merger with NBC Universal. The proposal comes with conditions meant to protect net neutrality, but vagueness renders the terms nearly meaningless -- and unlikely to inspire much confidence.
In an historic 3-2 vote Tuesday, the FCC passed its long-awaited network neutrality order, the most sweeping attempt yet to address the way phone, cable and Internet companies interact when it comes to Internet traffic. But Congress or the courts could end up unraveling the FCC's work.
Comcast faces FCC involvement in its fee dispute with Level 3 Communications and a new Consumers Union campaign to block its pending acquisition of NBC Universal, but shareholders appear unfazed so far. Shares of the cable giant fell less than 1% Tuesday to close at $20.03.
In two separate complaints, Level 3 Communications and Zoom Telephonics are alleging that Comcast is using its position as the nation's largest cable service system to restrict the open nature of the Internet. Comcast has strongly disputed the Level 3 complaint.
Federal Communications Commission regulators are investigating Google's Street View cars and their capture of users' personal information, from complete email addresses to passwords, an FCC official said Wednesday.
Verizon was today fined a record $25 million by the Federal Communications Commission and agreed to refund an additional $52.8 million to customers to settle allegations that the largest U.S. mobile-phone company overcharged customers for data fees.
News Corp. rejected Cablevision's retransmission price offer for Fox's New York and Philadelphia television stations, prompting Cablevision to solicit regulators to restore Fox TV signals to 3 million Cablevision subscribers in the Northeast.




















