A new line of lawsuits is emerging against cellphone operators as mobile data and content takes off, BusinessWeek reports. For more than a decade, mobile-phone customers complained about unfair billing and wireless voice calling plans. Now, as mobile data begins to take off — from texting to gaming to social networking to Web surfing — carriers are seeing a new wave of beefs. BusinessWeek details quite a few cases targeting excessive roaming charges to text-message spam. In one extreme case, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) was sued, claiming it should pay damages after a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an adult male who contacted her through an Internet profile she created using her cell phone. In a more high-profile case, found at appleiphonelawsuit.com, angry iPhone users complained after racking up hundreds of dollars in unexpected fees after using the devices abroad. The number of wireless service-related complaints rose 14 percent to 5,242 in the first quarter 2007 led by an increase in billing issues, according to the FCC. Of course, carriers and other service providers need to pay acute attention to these problems if they hope for mass adoption. There’s a few suggestions for how to handle these lawsuit: educate consumers and provide choices. For example, the article says T-Mobile USA is looking into a way to block text messages, so that people don’t get charged 15 cents for messages they don’t want to receive. Perhaps the best answer is making plans easier to understand to include more in each package. The big example of that right now is Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel. It’s launched the “Simply Everything” plan that includes all the data services on the phone, so that customers can feel free to browse, watch TV, and use navigation and talk as much as they’d like, without the fear of incurring additional charges.
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