We've seen an endless flood of stories about people who don't read their wireless broadband contract, then get shocked when the bill comes due. Last week we discussed how customers in these stories fail to properly research what they're buying, and the carriers involved have a history of portraying limited wireless broadband services as unlimited. Carriers also often fail to give subscribers a heads up until the bill gets completely out of hand, and often don't cut the confused user slack until some local network affiliate does a consumer help segment.

These stories usually involve a tethered smartphone or data card, but a new class action lawsuit filed against AT&T and Radioshack focuses on a netbook promotion being offered by the two companies. The promotion, which was unveiled back in December, offers users an Acer Aspire One for $100 if they sign a two year AT&T data contract. An excerpt of the complaint from RCR Wireless News:While the Radio Shack promotion page doesn't mention the 5GB cap, AT&T's terms of service (pdf) clearly does (in bold print), the website does, and the overage fees you'll incur are very clearly labeled as well. AT&T 3G data users are also notified of the limit via the AT&T "communication manager" for data cards. While carriers used to have invisible caps they advertised as unlimited, a little pressure from NY's Attorney General largely put an end to that back in 2007. While some carriers (like Cricket) still engage in false advertising, AT&T does not.

A recent survey suggested that the vast majority of American consumers have no idea what a gigabyte is, or how many gigabytes they use. In other words, consumers are going to have to become more educated very quickly (unlikely), or carriers are going to have to engage in a lot more hand holding to make these types of stories stop.