As we noted earlier this week, the FCC has launched in inquiry into why we continually see story after story (some involving smart individuals) suddenly facing ridiculous wireless broadband bills of $10,000, $20,000 or higher.

Of course it's a multi-sided situation, involving a combination of lazy or confused customers and complicated (and often amoral) billing practices that create bills that don't even remotely reflect the real cost of the provided service. It's clear that consumers could pay closer attention to their contract. It's also clear that carriers could do a much better job educating/alerting customers when bills get out of hand.

One of the proposals being looked at by the FCC mirrors a recent new European Union rule. It requires that carriers allow users to cap the maximum amount they'd like to spend each month. Users are then notified at 85% of total usage, then the account is temporarily suspended when the limit is reached. If the user doesn't pick a cap, a cap of $68 a month (data only) is automatically set for them.

Wireless carriers obviously don't want new FCC rules on this front, so the wireless industry very quickly worked to bring attention to the usage and billing tools they already offer (though it's clear they aren't working for many). The wireless industry's chief lobbying organization, the CTIA, issued a statement saying they were "looking forward to educating the commission" on all the existing tools they give users to check their balances and usage.

The CTIA blog also posted a list of carrier codes that allow users to check their balances:

AT&T

• *BAL# (*225#) and “Send” = Check your balance
• *MIN# (*646#) and “Send” = Check your minutes
• *DATA# (*3282#) and “Send” = Check remaining data usage (including text, pictures/videos and Internet)
• *NEW# (*639#) and “Send” = Check your upgrade eligibility
• *PAY (*729) and “Send” = Make a payment

SouthernLINC Wireless

• #BAL and “Send” = Check your balance (prepaid customers)
• #ADD and “Send” = Add talk time (prepaid customers)
• #MIN and "Send" = Check your minutes in the current billing period (contract/postpaid customers)
• #PAY and "Send" = Make a payment (contract/postpaid customers)

The industry strives to serve and provide all of our 285 million customers with the necessary tools to have a positive experience. -CTIA

Sprint Nextel

• *2 and “Send” = Check your usage, balance and to find your nearest Sprint store
• *3 and “Send” = Make a payment
• *4 and “Send” = Check your minutes

T-Mobile

• #MSG# (#674#) and “Send” = Check how many text messages sent and received and how many remaining
• #MIN# (#646#) and “Send” = Check your minutes used and when your billing period ends
• #BAL# (#225#) and “Send” = Check your current balance and date last payment was received

U.S. Cellular

• #BAL (#225) and “Send” = Check unbilled minutes, mobile to mobile minutes and text messages

Verizon Wireless

• #BAL and “Send” = Check your balance
• #MIN and “Send” = Check your minutes
• #PMT and “Send” = Make a payment
• #DATA and “Send” = Check text and picture count and data usage
• *611 and “Send” = Access account information

Again though, many consumers simply don't understand what a gigabyte or megabyte of data even is -- so they may need additional help, be that simpler billing models or systems that better alert users before a bill goes apocalyptic. Of course none of the carriers want to lose their right to rip off confused customers by charging them ridiculous amounts of money for services rendered -- so they so far haven't volunteered to embrace the EU proposal of allowing users to cap usage. Those voluntary changes might arrive down the line should they think the FCC is truly interested in passing regulation.