Lawmakers Consider Consumer Protections on Cell Phone Billing

Service Quality:

• The DTE (Department of Telecommunications and Energy) would monitor service quality. Data should be collected and made publicly available so consumers can compare signal strength, dropped call counts and dead zones across carriers.

Service Contracts:

• Consumers would have a trial period during which a customer can cancel any new service contract without having to pay the hefty contract termination fee ($175-300). This gives consumer time to see whether the phone works where and how it was promised. Consumers would have 30 days to cancel after having received their first bill.
• Carriers can not extend a customer's contract without obtaining a customer's written permission. Currently, many consumers do not realize that they are extending their contracts by upgrading their phones or by increasing or decreasing the minutes in their plans.
• No contract for wireless telephone service can be longer than twelve months.
• Any material changes that the carrier makes to the contract must be provided to customers in advance, and customers would have a 30 day opportunity to terminate the contract without penalty and to receive a pro-rated refund of the charges they paid for purchasing a phone for the carrier's network.

Consumer Privacy:

• Carriers must obtain customers express permission prior to making cell phone numbers public. They may not charge a fee for keeping the number private.