Good news for anyone who's suffered from bill shock: The FCC announced today that wireless carriers have fulfilled their commitment to start providing free alerts to customers both before and after they exceed their usage limits. "Bill shock" is the unpleasant discovery that you've exceeded your cell phone's voice, text, or data limits for the month and incurred extra charges

Ellen Bloom, Director of Federal Policy for Consumers Union (the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports), commented on the FCC's report:

If you've ever struggled to make sense of your wireless bill and keep track of your limits, these alerts can offer some real relief... We're glad to hear that companies are living up to this agreement, and we're going to keep monitoring them to make sure consumers get the alerts they need.

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Today is the one-year deadline for the agreement that was announced by the FCC and the wireless trade group CTIA last year. Wireless carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, agreed to notify customers as they approached their limits on data, voice, or text, as well as international roaming charges. Companies agreed to provide at least two types of alerts by today, and all four types of alerts by April 17.

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