Marty
05-01-2003, 09:10 PM
New Fees Change Bottom Line for Cell Phone Users
Along with the government-imposed taxes on the service, consumers are noticing new fees on their cell phone bills that are added by their service providers. The wireless companies say the fees are designed to help them recover the costs of meeting federal regulatory mandates such as providing location information on 911 calls from cell phones and enabling users to keep their cell phone numbers when they change service providers.
Critics of the wireless company fees say that the fees reflect the cost of doing business and should not be listed separately on bills, but should be included in the rates charged for service. Missouri's attorney general has filed suit against Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications alleging that the fees are misleading because they are listed on bills in a manner that could lead consumers to believe that they are government-imposed.
A spokesperson for Sprint PCS said it explained its fees in a mailing to its customers and has clarified the terminology used on the bills. A Nextel spokesperson said the company has worked carefully to make its descriptions of the fees "most informational."
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
Along with the government-imposed taxes on the service, consumers are noticing new fees on their cell phone bills that are added by their service providers. The wireless companies say the fees are designed to help them recover the costs of meeting federal regulatory mandates such as providing location information on 911 calls from cell phones and enabling users to keep their cell phone numbers when they change service providers.
Critics of the wireless company fees say that the fees reflect the cost of doing business and should not be listed separately on bills, but should be included in the rates charged for service. Missouri's attorney general has filed suit against Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications alleging that the fees are misleading because they are listed on bills in a manner that could lead consumers to believe that they are government-imposed.
A spokesperson for Sprint PCS said it explained its fees in a mailing to its customers and has clarified the terminology used on the bills. A Nextel spokesperson said the company has worked carefully to make its descriptions of the fees "most informational."
(Source: Wall Street Journal)