AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile will no longer...
AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile will no longer charge customers for commercial premium short messaging services (PSMS), said Bill Sorrell, Vermont’s attorney general, in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/19M7Z5a). Forty-five states, led by Vermont, engaged in discussions with carriers to…
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stop mobile cramming, said Sorrell. PSMS accounts for the majority of third-party charges on cellphone bills and for the “overwhelming majority” of cramming complaints, said Sorrell. Sorrell noted that in May he released a survey showing 60 percent of third-party charges placed on mobile phone bills of Vermonters were unauthorized, or “crammed.” AT&T and T-Mobile will continue to allow charitable donations to be billed via PSMS, said Sorrell. While Verizon is not included in the agreement, General Counsel William Petersen said the company had “previously decided to exit the premium messaging business because of these changes as well as recent allegations that third parties have engaged in improper conduct in providing premium messaging services to our customers.” Verizon will continue to support allowing text-to-donate programs for charities and political campaigns, said Petersen in a statement. “I'm glad to see AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint take matters in their own hands to protect their wireless customers from cramming,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in a statement. “The largest wireless carriers are putting customers first with this decision, and in turn, they're taking a major step forward toward eliminating this problem. I strongly urge all other carriers to follow their lead.” In June, Rockefeller introduced the Fair Telephone Billing Act of 2013, which was aimed at ending cramming on wireline telephone bills (CD June 13 p10).