It's hard not to feel cheated and over-charged when you receive unexpected roaming   charges while traveling abroad--whether they come from making phone calls or checking e-mails. Jeff Gardner received an $ 11,000 bill from Verizon after spending four days in Jamaica. Before the trip, Mr. Gardner, who runs a fly-fishing business in Grayling, Michigan, said he called Verizon to find out what it would cost to use his cellphone for calls and his wireless card to check e-mails while in Jamaica. He said he was told that calls would be about $ 2 a minute and that there would be no extra charges for data as he was on an unlimited plan. _ . "I don't mind paying a fair amount for fair service, but $11,000 for four days is ridiculous," said Mr. Gardner, who used his phone carefully and economically on the trip. He also tried to check and send e-mails using his wireless card, but quickly gave up after the e-mails didn't go through. Still, his Verizon bill said more than 500,000 kilobytes   of data was delivered while he was in Jamaica, an amount Mr. Gardner said is 100 times what he normally uses in a month. As travelers increasingly use smart phones abroad in the same way they do at home--to check e-mails, update Facebook and Twitter and pull up online maps--many are facing costly roaming fees, which providers charge when customers use their phones outside their service area. In fact, roaming charges have gotten so out of hand that the Federal Communications Commission has proposed a plan that would require wireless companies to send their customers a voice or text message when they are approaching their plan's limit, when they have reached that limit and when they are starting to result in roaming fees. What should wireless companies do according to the Federal Communications Commission?
Make customers know when they're outside their service area. Get customers informed when they're near the limit of their plan. Stop serving customers when they've reached their plan's limit. Limit some services to reduce the amount of roaming charges abroad.