More FCC BS – Bill Shock syndrome strategy
“Wireless carriers agree to end bill shock” declared the CNNMoney headlines, “those surprise overage charges on your wireless bill will soon be a thing of the past.” Oh really! The story was either written by an extreme optimist or someone who knows very little about the machinations of carrier billing or customer behavior. Despite the [...]
Do we invite regulation?
Singapore regulator, the Infocomm Development Agency (IDA), recently introduced a series of bold, even radical, measures to protect local mobile service consumers. The usual suspects – premium rate services (PRS) and data roaming featured, but IDA also launched a review of its Quality of Service (QoS) framework for mobile telephone services with a view to [...]
More regulators catching BS bug
BS (Bill Shock) Day has been and gone and the FCC voted unanimously to gather more information on proposed rules that would require mobile service providers to send usage alerts and related information to customers to help them avoid bill shock. Wow, that’s decisive! FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said there was more than ample evidence [...]
‘BS Day’ in the USA
Yesterday was BS (Bill Shock) Day at the FCC in the United States. This is the day the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) plans to introduce new rules for mobile phone bills. The goal is to avoid consumer ‘bill shock’ from unexpected charges. The rules may require wireless companies to alert customers before they exceed limits [...]
Euro ‘bill shock’ days are numbered (or are they)?
The days of European ‘bill shocks’ are well and truly numbered. The most recent headline grabber being a German resident downloading a TV program while roaming in France facing a bill of €46,000 when he got home. But that’s all about to change and service providers will have to comply with ‘cut-off’ requirements by March [...]
Australian watchdog swamped by ‘bill shock’ complaints, again
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reports that consumers are making up to 350 complaints per day to authorities about the high cost of owning new generation smartphones in what they call a ‘phenomenon known as bill shock’. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Deidre O’Donnell, said customers, confused by caps on downloading emails and data, were being [...]
Billing used to put the bling into telecoms, now it’s only responsible for the occasional shock
Billing used to be so important for telecoms service providers that it lived in its own domain with direct links to Finance and IT. But how times have changed. Billing has been banished back to the back room again where it’s just part of the broader BSS group. What’s happened?
Bill Shock Hits Home
The boom in smartphone sales and the higher data usage which has come with it, is both a blessing and a scourge for mobile operators and may be the driver for new billing models to be adopted. The Singapore Times is the latest to pick up on the phenomenon that operators hate to hear about [...]