Mobile Personalization

Mobile phone companies will have to give customers fair warning before socking them with extra fees on their bills, according to rules proposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission a couple months back.

“The FCC (News - Alert) wants to curb so-called bill shock by making mobile phone companies send text or voice alerts to customers before charging them for services not covered by their plans,” Reuters (News - Alert) has reported, citing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski saying "Our core goal is to make it easy for consumers to determine their destiny when it comes to their services and their monthly bills.”

TMC’s (News - Alert) Tracey Schelmetic writes, “The FCC has proposed drafting rules for wireless companies that will require them to send customers who are approaching their plan limits for voice, text or data warning messages via text informing them of the pending overages.”

Bridgewater Systems has a policy-based bill shock solution available for service providers. The solution, launched in June 2009, is the myPolicy™ client application for mobile devices. myPolicy Broker communicates requests and retrieves the appropriate information for the subscriber; and the Bridgewater® Policy Controller or “PCRF” applies real-time network, application and subscriber rules such as updating usage information, providing subscriber context, and enforcing limits.

Bridgewater’s myPolicy allows subscribers to have control over their mobile experience by providing access to monitor their usage, limits and offers. Users can track real-time data, SMS and applications usage, as well as voice and roaming charges anytime, anywhere. Subscribers can also set personalized limits, notifications, parental, and roaming controls to manage mobile usage and prevent bill shock. Using myPolicy, users can receive special offers such as day passes for new applications, roaming passes for subscribers who are traveling, bandwidth top-ups, or free SMS with mobile advertising.

“Bridgewater's innovative policy-based bill shock solution helps service providers comply with EU data roaming regulations and addresses the mobile usage transparency issues raised by the FCC,” said David Sharpley (News - Alert), senior vice president for Bridgewater Systems. “By giving consumers and businesses greater control over their mobile data usage and the ability to set personalized limit, notifications and special offers, service providers can improve the customer experience and prevent bill shock.”

According to Reuters, alerts would be sent when customers near and reach their monthly limits on voice, text and data services, and before they incur international or roaming charges priced above their normal rates.