Examines spend management tools and alerts for post-paid mobile phone consumers, and their relationship with unexpectedly high bills.
Executive summary
This report details the results of research commissioned by the ACMA to examine spend management tools and alerts for post-paid mobile phone consumers, and their relationship with unexpectedly high bills.
The research, undertaken in February 2015, sampled 1,735 adults in total, including 1,020 of the target population of post-paid mobile phone bill payers.
It shows that spend management related changes to the 2012 Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code have had a positive impact for many consumers. Most consumers have welcomed the alerts system and are using a range of the spend management tools that are now available to help them manage their growing and changing use of their mobile phones, and avoid unexpectedly high bills.
The occurrence of unexpected high bills, the average amount of higher than expected bills and the incidence of very high bills have all reduced in an environment of increasing data use and increased use of other phone features.
 
