For years we've seen story after story where customers face ridiculous wireless data bills ranging from $10,000 to $60,000. The problem is a combination of consumers that don't read their contract details, don't understand roaming, and have no idea what a gigabyte is -- and carriers that intentionally make their billing confusing to prey on this -- then do a poor job of warning consumers before the bill goes nuclear. Last October Uncle Sam began the process of fielding input on possible consumer protections for wireless billing. Wireless carriers, of course, would prefer that nothing be done -- and have been waging a campaign to prevent anything from changing.

The latest salvo on that front is a new study by the Wireless Communications Association International, a group sponsored by companies like AT&T, Google, Sprint, and Clearwire. While most anti-regulation folks have naturally argued that "bill shock" rules aren't necessary, the WCAI is the first we've seen go so far as to argue that overages are good for you, insisting that American consumers save between $882 million and $2.4 billion per year thanks to overages. According to the WCAI, consumers are doing a perfectly fine job picking the best data plans for their need without consumer protections preventing price gauging or misleading billing tactics:That's in contrast to the endless stories we've seen in the press about consumers who face bills in excess of $10,000 for service that shouldn't cost more than a few hundred dollars. It's also in stark contrast to a recent FCC study that claimed roughly 30 million Americans -- or about one in every six mobile users -- have experienced "bill shock," or a sudden spike in their bill not related to a plan change (the highest was $68,000, according to FCC data). It remains unclear if the FCC's rules will do much of anything -- and they certainly won't be as tough as the EU's, where users are required to set a monthly service spending limit -- with carriers required to repeatedly and clearly inform the user when they get close to that limit.