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At a meeting held today (December 16) between the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) and the five mobile network operators (MNOs), the MNOs have agreed to develop a Code of Practice together with OFTA to implement a series of measures to improve the transparency about charging information and arrangements for mobile content services delivered through short messaging services (SMS).
"At the meeting, we have expressed to the MNOs our concern about the recent trend of consumer complaints about content service charges levied on mobile service subscribers. In order to safeguard consumer interest, we have requested the MNOs to take necessary measures to improve the charging arrangements for such kind of services. The measures include:
1) to indicate prominently in the short messages the chargeable nature of the services and when such charges start to trigger;
2) to provide clear charging information;
3) to set out clearly arrangements for unsubscribing or deregistering from the services. Such arrangements should be easy to understand and carry out; and
4) to ensure that disputed content service charge will not affect the normal mobile phone services of the concerned subscribers," the Director-General of OFTA, Mrs Marion Lai Chan Chi Kuen, said after the meeting.
"We are pleased that the MNOs have responded positively to our proposal. OFTA will follow up with the MNOs to come up with a Code of Practice quickly on charging for mobile content service. The Code of Practice would contain all the necessary measures for compliance by the industry."
"OFTA will not hesitate to take regulatory action if any telecommunications licencee is found in breach of the licence conditions or provisions under the Telecommunications Ordinance (TO)," Mrs Lai emphasized.
"In order to avoid unnecessary financial loss or billing disputes, we would also like to remind consumers that they should read carefully all the service terms and conditions before confirming a service subscription, and think twice before providing their mobile phone numbers or other personal information to content service providers," Mrs Lai added.
"OFTA will continue to monitor the market situation and undertake consumer education to facilitate consumers to make informed choice as and when necessary," she said.
Background:
There has been wide public concern about billing disputes in connection with chargeable mobile content services delivered through SMS. In many cases, the mobile content service providers have either failed to provide in their messages or websites detailed and clear charging information, or indicate clearly to customers how they may terminate subscription to the services. Some complainants also indicated that they were not fully aware that they had registered with the services and the services were chargeable.
To alert consumers of possible billing disputes and unnecessary financial loss due to subscription and consumption of mobile content services, OFTA has published a consumer alert (http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/c_alert/c_alert_20091120.pdf) on its website.
Ends/Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 21:31
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