Stolen mobile phones can cost their owners thousands of pounds, prompting Citizens Advice to urge the British government to act.
A cap on charges made after a phone is stolen was supposed to have been introduced in spring of this year.
Citizens Advice says that customers “cannot afford” further delays on the proposal.
Mobile phone owners have to pay for any charges made on a stolen phone until it has been reported as stolen.
Out of more than 20,000 stolen phone cases reported to Citizens Advice, a look at just 69 cases showed charges ranged from £70 to £17,000.
Some people were not even aware that their phones had been nabbed until the provider freezes the account.
A charity spokesperson said: “We have helped holidaymakers who had their phones swiped while abroad only to come home to bills as high as some annual salaries. People who come to Citizens Advice for help with their mobile phone bill are often at their wit’s end about sums they cannot pay.”
It urged the government to clarify the timetable for the cap on charges.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport had said in December 2013 that four companies – Three, EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media – had agreed to cap bills. O2 was a notable exception to the agreement. The Department said negotiations were still ongoing.
The cap would be set at a similar level to debit and credit cards, where customers are liable for just £50, the Government said.
Helen Goodman MP, opposition minister for communications, said: “In December last year, the Government cobbled together a voluntary deal with the mobile operators which fell apart before it even started when O2 refused to sign up. We have heard nothing since.”
