24 Operator Groups (4B Subscribers) to Adopt Bill Shock Prevention Measures This Year

Months after Bill Shock Prevention was regulated in the EU [here] and the US [here], GSMA members decided to take it to a global level (see also - "CTIA: FCC Bill Shock Alerts would cost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to implement" - here)  

  

"At a meeting held this week in Shanghai, 24 operator groups, including América Móvil, AT&T, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti Airtel, Ltd., China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom-Orange, Hutchison 3 Group, KT Corporation, MTS, Qtel, SK Telecom, Smart Communications, Inc., SoftBank Mobile Corp., Tata Teleservices Limited, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Verizon Communications, VimpelCom and Vodafone Group agreed to undertake a number of measures which will help mobile subscribers better understand their data roaming charges and more effectively manage their use of data services .. In the first phase of this initiative, these operators and their group subsidiaries have agreed to implement these data roaming transparency measures by the end of 2012, covering more than 4 billion mobile connections worldwide. The GSMA will also work to promote the adoption of these guidelines across its full membership base of nearly 800 mobile operators globally".  

• Sending text messages to remind customers of their data roaming tariffs when they arrive in another country and turn on their mobile device;
• Implementing a monthly data roaming spending limit to help consumers manage their roaming bill and sending alerts when their data usage approaches the limit; and
• Temporarily suspending data service when usage exceeds the spending limit.

See "GSMA Launches Data Roaming Transparency Initiative" - here.