T-Mobile has begun providing customers with additional usage alerts that can help prevent overages and unwanted surprises on their bills. These new alerts will make it easier for customers to know when they are nearing or exceeding their service plan limits for voice, data, text and international roaming.
T-Mobile and others in the industry have voluntarily committed to do this, and we are working toward industrywide milestones, led by CTIA - The Wireless Association, in concert with the Federal Communications Commission. As part of the voluntary agreement, T-Mobile and other carriers agreed to several benchmarks, including a deadline of April 2013 to implement usage alerts for voice, data, text messages and international roaming.
T-Mobile met the first benchmark by implementing two of the four kinds of alerts. And now we're delighted to announce we've met the second deadline, offering all four alerts well before April. As a continuing commitment to customers, we thought this issue was important enough that we wanted to get it done right away, so we worked hard to hit this milestone nearly five months ahead of schedule. We also took an additional step and are providing the alerts to all current customers, not just future customers.
For many years, T-Mobile has been at the forefront of providing information to customers to give them a better understanding of their wireless service usage. From international roaming messages that remind customers they are roaming outside of the country and may incur higher charges to tools and controls that help customers understand their voice, text and data usage, our goal has always been to help ensure that there are no surprises on the next bill.
T-Mobile customers will see these alerts beginning to appear on their phones when they are nearing their plan usage limits. To our customers, I say this: Please understand that we have no vested interest in "surprising" you with an unexpectedly high bill. In fact, we want just the opposite. We want you to know us as a wireless company that is fully committed to providing you superior customer service, unparalleled value, cutting-edge products, and a reliable and fast network. And just as important, we want you to be in control of your spending.
Jim Alling is chief operations officer for T-Mobile USA. He is responsible for developing and executing business performance and operational strategies for customer-facing operations including Sales, Retail, Customer Service, Channel Management and Supply Chain. He joined T-Mobile in 2009.