FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski had some choice words for the wireless industry today in his remarks at the Center for American Progress. Namely, he talked about complaints the FCC has received about bill shock. Two-thirds of the complaints the agency received this year were disputing amounts of a hundred dollars or more.

A while back, when some of the bill shock rhetoric was heating up, I was ready to dismiss it, knowing that many carriers already offer ways to let customers know they're about to exceed their monthly limits. U.S. Cellular, for example, recently outlined its Overage Cap and Overage Protection services as part of its Belief Project. Overage Protection sends customers a text message when they reach 75 percent of their allotted minutes or text messages and again at 100 percent so there's no surprise when the bill arrives.

Genachowski also noted in his speech that many carriers already offer some tools along those lines. iPad users are automatically signed up for text alerts from AT&T when they're about to incur overage charges, he said. But he added that tools like this are still the exception, not the rule, which is why regulators are stepping up their part.

It's really unfortunate that stories about people getting $18,000 or $30,000 cell phone bills are still circulating. This industry should have been past that long ago. Yet they're still out there. These overcharges are happening. Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless confessed to overcharging about 15 million customers for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate. The FCC questioned why it took Verizon so long, like two years or more, to reimburse its customers. Good question.

At its meeting tomorrow, the FCC is going to consider rules requiring mobile carriers to provide usage alerts and related information to assist consumers in avoiding unexpected charges on their bills. Genachowski mentioned that the FCC has heard from consumer groups, major wireless service providers and smaller providers and is aware that smaller carriers face some unique challenges, so maybe there will be something in the FCC's action that alleviates some pain for smaller carriers.

In the broad scope, it's tempting to dismiss Genachowski's remarks as something coming from a politician who needs to show he's doing something to crack down on the "big, bad" industry. It's tempting to look at the FCC's numbers and spin it as "only" 764 bill-shock complaints in the first six months of 2010, a tiny fraction of the 292.8 million subscribers in the United States. But as we all know, many people never file complaints. Billing errors are one of those things that consumers are forced to fight. They shouldn't occur in the first place, but when they do, the onus is on the customer to take the time to make the call, complain, explain, et cetera, and that's a hassle. Who has time for that? And even if you have time, it's a lousy way to spend an hour or more.

You can spin it any which way, but the bottom line is billing errors should not occur as much as they do, not in this day and age. Do people really need a smartphone app to make sure they're not getting overcharged? Ridiculous. It's even more annoying to hear about these overcharges when carriers are investing so much in next-generation networks. Hey, can't you find some money in the budget for more accurate record keeping?