The federal government is considering requiring wireless carriers to alert you before hitting you with massive cell phone overage charges when you exceed your minutes or data plan limitations.

Europe has long had such a model in place. But here in the United States, wireless carriers depend on what they call "bill shock" to boost their revenues. According to an FCC survey, just under 90 percent of customers are not informed at all that they're approaching overage territory.

We've all heard the "bill shock" horror stories when someone has a disruptive event in their lives -- a death in the family, for example -- and they exceed their minutes. The next thing you know, you're staring down a monthly bill that can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars more than it usually is.

In Europe, they don't limit the right of the carrier to assess overage charges. Instead they simply require the carriers to inform you that you're about to go over your allotment and will be subject to penalties.

Now, giving people the knowledge and then letting them make a smart (or foolish) decision as they do in Europe is totally fine. But purposely not having any method in place so you can rip off customers like we do here in the United States is not fine.

AT&T in particular rolled out huge new data overage charges in anticipation of the iPhone 4. Then they put out misinformation claiming only a small percent of customers would ever experience an overage. Talk about really sticking it to the customer!

T-Mobile, on the other hand, has come up with an idea that Clark really likes. If you go over your allotted amount of data, they simply slow your Internet connection until your next billing cycle. So they've made the business decision to degrade your user experience rather than your wallet. Bravo, T-Mobile!