The telcos have also been accused of overcharging customers for plans they weren't using.
The "bill shock'' was shared by more than 10 million people. Some were $3000 out of pocket for 12 months, while most were charged about $80 in excess costs.
The State of the Mobile Nation report from Macquarie University found two-thirds of Australians were paying for inclusions in their mobile plan they did not use.
Dr David Gray, from Macquarie University in Queensland, said the report showed households were wasting hundreds of dollars on unused features each year.
"The research shows that bill shock is consistently experienced by consumers signing up to traditional plans,'' he said.
"They are being offered lots of choice, but it's not translating into value.''
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network criticised the telcos for taking "two bites of the cherry''.
"With people regularly not using all their so-called included value within their plans, while at the same time paying more for services that aren't included,'' said spokeswoman Elissa Freeman.
"This problem exists because of the way Australian telcos structure their plans, which are unnecessarily complex and lock people into 24-month contracts that sometimes don't suit their needs.''
Frankston man Tony Wiber, 67, was slugged with an unexpected $1100 bill after he suffered a cardiac problem in a Frankston Telstra store a little over a year ago.
He needed open-heart surgery and wanted to keep in touch with his wife, who was travelling in London, but didn't realise how expensive the international calls would be.
"I was a bit out of it, still suffering from anaesthetic, but I was a bit surprised,'' he said.
Amaysim, a low-cost mobile operator, supported the Macquarie University research and argued consumers needed to play more of a role in finding plans that didn't carry unwanted extras to drive prices down among the bigger telcos.
heraldsun.com.au 29 Mar 2012
Corporate Fraud at its finest.
Laws and the exectution of them, together with the legal system working for the corporates to the financial detriment of the masses produces outcomes like this.
One can easily hide behind the banner of 'It is written in the Terms and Conditions document', but there is deliberate misinformation concerning this.
Another win for the 'system'.
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