Media Advisory
CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2010—In response to Verizon Wireless' recent admission that it committed up to $90 million worth of billing errors, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) will hold a news conference Monday to release a report on the state of Illinois’ cell-phone industry, based on a year of new calling data from its online service, the CUB Cellphone Saver.

Contact:
For more information call
Jim Chilsen at 312-263-4282 (office) or 312-513-1784 (cell).
Click here for an Adobe Acrobat version of the news release.
The report, “Dodging The Wireless Industry’s Pitfalls,” details major problems with the Land of Lincoln’s cell industry, reveals that thousands of callers who visited the Cellphone Saver were overpaying by an average of $359 a year, identifies expensive red flags for consumers to avoid, and challenges carriers to make specific reforms to better serve their customers.

The news conference, led by CUB Executive Director David Kolata, is:

10:30 a.m., Monday, Oct. 11
CUB’s Chicago headquarters
309 W. Washington St., Suite 800


The report is based on an exhaustive analysis of 4,400 wireless bills studied by the Cellphone Saver, which was created in a partnership with Validas. Using never-before-seen data, CUB's report will show in painful detail how the plans that produce big profits for the industry are so badly suited to typical callers that many waste hundreds of dollars a year on calling time they simply never use.

CUB is Illinois’ leading nonprofit utility watchdog organization. Created by the Illinois Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers. Since then, CUB has saved consumers more than $10 billion by helping to block rate hikes and secure refunds. For more information, call CUB’s Consumer Hotline at 1-800-669-5556 or visit CUB’s award-winning website, www.CitizensUtilityBoard.org.