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LCQ14: Do-not-call registers
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    Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):

Question:

    The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (Cap. 593) came into full operation on December 22 last year. Members of the public who do not wish to receive unsolicited faxes, short messages or pre-recorded telephone messages can have their fax/telephone numbers registered on the relevant registers set up by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA). In this regard, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the respective up-to-date numbers of fax/telephone numbers registered on the three registers, and their respective percentages in the total number of such numbers;

(b) the number of complaints received so far from users of numbers which have been registered on the relevant registers that they still received unwanted types of unsolicited electronic messages, and how OFTA has followed up such complaints;

(c) the up-to-date number of senders of electronic messages who are subscribers of the data on the registers, and its percentage in the number of operators in the relevant sectors; and

(d) the details of the operating costs of the registers concerned; whether the existing annual subscription charge of $1,600 per register can recover the cost, and if it has assessed if the charge has room for downward adjustment?

Reply:

Madam President,

    Since the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO) came into full operation in late December 2007, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has launched in phases the do-not-call registers for fax, short messages and pre-recorded telephone messages. Members of the public may register their telephone or fax numbers onto the registers, and the registered numbers will be protected by the UEMO. Under the UEMO, senders of commercial electronic messages should not send such messages to any number listed on the do-not-call registers unless consent has been given by the registered user of the number. Senders of commercial electronic messages may apply for subscription accounts with OFTA to download the relevant do-not-call registers and vet their sending lists based on the information of the registers to avoid contravening the UEMO.

    My reply to the question is as follows:

(a) As at April 2008, the respective numbers of fax/telephone numbers registered onto the do-not-call registers are as follows:

      Operational  Number of  Percentage in the
      date        registered  total no. concerned
                    numbers

Do-not-
call
register
for fax  Jan 8 2008  127 065        - (Note 1)

Do-not-
call 
register
for short
messages  Jan 25 2008  156 001    1.5% (Note 2)

Do not-
call
register for
pre-recorded
telephone
messages Mar 26 2008  375 090    2.6% (Note 3)

Total                  658 156

(b) If members of the public still receive commercial electronic messages after registering their numbers onto the do-not-call registers, they may lodge a complaint to OFTA.

    Upon receipt of the complaint, OFTA will contact the complainant for further information as and when necessary. OFTA will contact the sender as well to request for a response. After considering and analysing the information provided by the complainant and the sender, OFTA will decide whether the sender has violated the UEMO and take appropriate action accordingly. If the sender is found to be a first offender and is willing to take immediate remedial measures (such as to immediately cease sending commercial electronic messages which contravene the UEMO, to vet its sending list by opening a subscription account of the do-not-call registers) after being reminded, OFTA will consider issuing a warning letter to the sender, and keep a watch to see if there is any further breach of the UEMO by the sender. If the sender concerned is not cooperative and OFTA is of the view that the contravention will likely continue or be repeated, OFTA may issue an enforcement notice to require the sender concerned to take steps to remedy the contravention. Under the UEMO, a person who contravenes an enforcement notice commits an offence and is liable on first conviction to a fine up to $100,000; on second or subsequent conviction to a fine up to $500,000; and in the case of a continuing offence to a further daily fine of $1,000.

    OFTA has received a total of 2,158 complaint cases of spamming since the full commencement of the UEMO in late December 2007 to April 2008. Among some 750 concluded cases, about 140 cases (18.7%) have been found to be in contravention of the UEMO upon investigation (Note 4). Among those 140 cases, 120 cases (16%) involved commercial electronic messages sent to the numbers listed on the do-not-call registers by the senders. OFTA has issued warning letters to the 21 companies/organisations involved. OFTA will closely monitor the organisations concerned to see whether non-compliance of provisions under the UEMO will be repeated in future and will issue enforcement notices when necessary.

    As for the complaints that are still being handled, information on the number of complaints involving the sending of commercial electronic messages to numbers listed on the do-not-call registers is not available at the moment. This is due to the fact that many complainants have not provided details of the suspected contraventions when making the reports, and OFTA has to collect information from individual complainants and the senders concerned and then analyses the information upon receipt of such reports before it can ascertain the contraventions that may be involved.

(c) As at April 2008, the respective numbers of subscription accounts for the do-not-call registers are as follows:

      No. of subscription  No. of applications Total
      accounts opened      being processed
Do-not-
call
register
for fax  134                  27                161

Do-not-
call
register
for short
messages  65                  9                  74

Do-not-
call
register for
pre-recorded
telephone
messages  24                  8                  32

Total    223                  44                267

    Since senders of commercial electronic messages do not necessarily have to download the do-not-call registers direct for vetting their sending lists (a sender may, for instance, have already obtained the consent of the registered users of the numbers to which the commercial electronic messages are to be sent, or it may have commissioned an agent or operator to vet its sending list), it is not a must for them to open a subscription account with OFTA. As such, we do not have the percentage of senders subscribing the do-not-call registers in the number of operators in the relevant sectors.

(d) The average annual operating costs of the do-not-call registers are estimated to be about $1.3 million, including equipment maintenance, Internet access and telephone facility charges, as well as staff cost. The subscription fees for the do-not-call registers are set based on cost recovery principles. Based on the prevailing charge level, a total of 800 subscription accounts will be needed in order to break even. Currently, there are only some 200 subscription accounts and OFTA has not yet been able to recover the costs. OFTA will continue to promote the service and review the subscription fee level from time to time.

Note 1: At present, there are approximately 350 000 fax lines in Hong Kong. However, since fax machines can also be connected to fixed telephone lines, OFTA does not have information on the total number of fax numbers currently in use in Hong Kong.

Note 2: Since most of the existing fixed-line telephones do not support short message services, we believe that most of the numbers listed on the do-not-call register for short messages are mobile telephone numbers. As such, the calculation of the percentage of numbers listed on the do-not-call register in the total number concerned is based on the total number of mobile telephone users only. As at January 2008, the total number concerned was 10.58 million.

Note 3: Since both fixed-line and mobile telephone users can register their numbers onto the do-not-call register for pre-recorded telephone messages, the calculation of the percentage of numbers listed on the do-not-call register in the total number concerned is based on the total number of fixed-line and mobile telephone users. As at January 2008, the total number concerned was 14.3 million.

Note 4: Regarding the remaining cases, most of them cannot be further processed due to various reasons such as not relating to provisions under the UEMO, complainants' failure to provide sufficient information, complainants' refusal to authorise OFTA to disclose case information to the senders and withdrawal of complaints in the midway. It has been confirmed in some of the cases upon investigation that the senders have not breached the UEMO. Besides, about 110 complaint cases involved overseas junk emails and OFTA has referred them to the relevant overseas law enforcement agencies for follow-up actions.

Ends/Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:39

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