CLEVELAND -- When you make a call on your cell phone, you may not realize that the call could cost you, no matter how local it seems.

On Your Side Consumer Reporter Chris Caswell reported on those unexpected roaming charges.

Imagine that you're surrounded by cell towers, but your company's towers are busy or out of range.

Instead of dropping the call, your phone might use another provider's tower -- at a premium price.

"Roaming charges can be as high as $1.10 per minute," said Knox Bricken, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

Dan Finch was surprised by the roaming charges on his bill, because his home office is right in the middle of his wireless company's home calling area.

And yet, he often has to walk to a nearby corner to make a call roam-free.

"My phone will go in and out of roam in this house," he said.

Tom Roadman didn't expect roaming fees either, as long as he stayed in the local area laid out in the brochure.

"I'm not getting what they advertised," he said.

Bricken said that most customers don't know roaming is possible under some plans, whether they're local or national, no matter what the colorful ads and maps say.

"Some of these pictures that the carriers offer (are) definitely deceiving," he said.

But Kimberly Kuo of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association said that roaming is a real convenience for customers mainly concerned with completing their calls.

"What roaming allows you to do is really capitalize and use all those towers," she said.

But a growing number of customers, like Finch and Roadman, are anything but satisfied and are posting complaints online at places like planetfeedback.com.

"Roaming appears to be a critical hot point with the wireless providers," said Peter Blackshaw of planetfeedback.com.

At PlanetFeedback.com, complaints about billing and misleading coverage maps have helped to make wireless the second-most-complained-about industry.

"The industry has set extremely high expectations with consumers, and consumers are basically telling the industry that (it is) underdelivering," Blackshaw said.

In just three months, the Federal Communications Commission received more than 1,000 complaints about problems with wireless bills. The FCC confirmed that it has no rules about roaming charges.

"I do not think it's a high concern for them right now," Blackshaw said.

Attorneys general in more than 20 states have asked some national wireless companies to answer their concerns over ads.

In a letter to one company, the ads were called "misleading, unfair and deceptive." But the industry insisted that roaming policies are spelled out up front.

"Customers can find out about roaming options, and you know what they would be billed for," Kuo said. "It's all in their contract."

Roadman said that he'd face a steep penalty if he switched companies now. Instead, he set up his phone to hang up rather than go to roam.

While some plans don't charges roaming fees, they're more expensive, because the fees are built into the price.

You can program your phone not to go to roam, but you do risk more dropped calls.