A Wilmington law firm suing wireless carrier SunCom Wireless is proposing a legal settlement that could potentially benefit more than 55,000 current and former SunCom customers in North Carolina.

The lawsuit, filed in January on behalf of a New Hanover County resident, accuses SunCom of adding deceptive charges to customers' cell phone bills beginning in 2003. According to the suit, SunCom offered customers a free "detailed billing" feature and subsequently charged $2 a month for the service.

Some customers were charged without any notice, and others were charged after they notified the company to stop the service, the suit claims. The service provided an itemized monthly list of all phone calls and their duration.

Under the proposed settlement, SunCom would pay $1.50 for every month it wrongly billed for the service. The payments would be made to state residents who were SunCom customers from December 2002 through June 8, 2011.