Senator blasts surcharges
The devil, as the saying goes, is in the details. Apparently, so are the bills.
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., released a study that revealed cell phone users in New York City pay more than $82 million in hidden fees a year — or nearly $7 million a month — as a result of surcharges added to their monthly bills by four of the six wireless providers in New York City.
According to the senator’s study, these additional charges are not advertised as part of the cost of cell phone calling plans and are used by cell phone companies to offset rising costs stemming from improvements to wireless networks, many of which these companies have yet to implement and are actively opposing in court and Congress.
“It takes a lot of nerve to advertise one price for a calling plan and then add extra costs to the final bill,” Schumer said. “It takes even more nerve to charge the extra money on the one hand and then actively oppose the service upgrades they are meant to pay for on the other. But that’s exactly what many wireless companies are doing at a cost of $82 million annually to New York City cell phone users.”
Schumer planned to introduce his “Cell Phone Users Bill of Rights” the second week of June. The bill, a wireless package that plans to prohibit the addition of any charges to a cell phone bill unless clearly advertised as part of the cost of the wireless plan.
The legislation also would require the clear display of all costs associated with a specific plan in an informational box that will be part of wireless advertising material. This full disclosure, according to the senator, would allow consumers to make an informed choice between available cell phone packages, something hidden fees prevent them from doing.