http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3Mbkyo_Hz0k
Did you last monthly cell phone bill from AT&T give you a heart attack? Do you have that sinking feeling that no matter what service you opted for and how you use your smartphone, the nation’s worst carrier always finds a way to jack up your monthly bill north of $100. AT&T, which says it wants “to simplify your wireless life”, has put together a video which strives to educate its subscribers on the intricacies of wireless bills.
As you can see for yourself, the itemized statements help explain your individual charges and the whole thing is complimentary to you. AT&T plans to make it available through email and via your myAT&T account online. The company confirmed plans to launch the video billing service nationwide by early 2013 and it’s available now for their U-verse Voice, TV and Internet subscribers…
From YouTube description:
Video bills from AT&T allow customers to easily understand their wireless bill. View an example of an innovative, customized video that displays the contents of your wireless bill.
In a blog post, AT&T explains that your video bill is an automatically-generated, personalized video with computer animation and voice narration that explains the individual charges.
The company also explains how the idea was conceived and executed:
The concept for this service came to us through the AT&T Foundry innovation center in Ra’anana, Israel, where a company called SundaySky presented its technology in a “fast pitch” presentation to AT&T executives. In keeping with our goal for the AT&T Foundry to be a rapid innovator, we worked with the Information Technology group at AT&T to bring U-verse video bill to our customers within twelve months.
In July, AT&T, SundaySky, and Amdocs, one of our AT&T Foundry sponsors and a key collaborator on video bill, won the Global Telecoms Business 2012 Consumer Service Award for Consumer Billing Innovation for our U-verse video bill deployment. Improving the customer experience is a key goal for AT&T, and the industry is recognizing our efforts.
No other U.S. carrier offers video bills, AT&T mentions.
I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction, albeit way overdue.
Still, I think carriers in general could do a lot better job explaining mysterious charges on wireless bills