Federal Communications Commission Wants Alerts on Wireless Overages

The proposal is similar to rules recently enacted in the European Union on wireless companies, which require carriers to send a text message to subscribers who are racking up roaming charges or getting close to their plan's roaming limit.

The Federal Communications Commission proposal also considers whether carriers should send real-time alerts to subscribers who are exceeding their monthly voice, data or text messaging limits.

"We've gotten hundreds of complaints about bill shock," said Joel Gurin, head of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, in a statement. He said the agency is looking at if "there's any reason that American carriers can't use similar automatic alerts to inform consumers when they are at risk of running up a high bill."