The Federal Communications Commission wants to cut down on “bill shock,” the unpleasant phenomenon consumers experience when they get unexpectedly get a huge wireless phone bill.

The agency’s Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau says it wants ideas on ways to alert consumers about big potential charges for roaming and a host of other services before they suddenly show up on a customer’s bill.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of huge, unanticipated wireless bills – including, it appears, the FCC.

“We’ve gotten hundreds of complaints about ‘bill shock’, but this is an avoidable problem,” says Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC’s Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. “There can be many causes of bill shock, including unclear or misunderstood advertising, unanticipated roaming or data charges, and other problems. All can lead to charges that people don’t expect to get.”

One idea under consideration is requiring carriers to send text messages to consumers when they are about to run up steep roaming charges or getting close to a specified limit on data service. Such notifications are already required by the European Union.

The agency this week issued a Public Notice to see if there’s any reason that American carriers can’t use similar automatic alerts to inform consumers when they are at risk of running up a high bill.

In the Public Notice, the Bureau asks for comment on:

• Whether technological or other differences exist that would prevent wireless providers in this country from employing usage alerts similar to those now required by the EU.

• The extent to which consumers can now monitor their wireless usage and know when they are exceeding their predetermined allocations of voice minutes, text messages, or data usage.

• The extent to which U.S. providers are already offering such usage alerts, and the cost to the consumer or the provider.

• Whether certain usage controls lend themselves more to one type of service (such as voice) than to another (such as data).

• The extent to which such information can be accessed on wireless devices by people with disabilities – in particular, by people who are blind or have low vision -- and what kinds of usage alerts would be most helpful to them.

The Public Notice is one of the first actions initiatives undertaken by the Commission’s Consumer Task Force, which was launched in January by Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Gurin says that complaints about bill shock come from all over the country and involve all the major wireless carriers.

Here is a typical example:

“My [cell phone] bill suddenly tripled in one month. . . When I got to looking it over, I noticed that they had charged me for my mobile to mobile minutes. They had advertised free mobile to mobile.”

We think this is a proper and positive step by the FCC to protect consumers and hope it leads to the quick adoption of new rules to fight “bill shock.”

In the meantime, the FCC has put together a consumer tip sheet for avoiding “bill shock.”