FCC Proposes Changes to Make Phone Bills Easier to Understand

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed guidelines to make consumer telephone bills easier to understand while stamping out the fraud and confusion that have proliferated in recent years.

The proposed “truth in billing” initiative asked local phone companies to separate out charges or service providers appearing for the first time on a monthly phone bill and to explain in plain language what charges are for. Contact numbers to reach all service providers on the bill should also be included, the guidelines say.

Competition for telephone services, in part prompted by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, has caused consumer phone bills to often balloon to more than a dozen pages, sometimes including mysterious or unauthorized charges. Federal and state regulators say they have seen a plague of unauthorized switching of a consumer’s long-distance service, known as “slamming,” and billing for services never ordered, called “cramming.”