Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Thu, May 24, 2012
Archive Search

Phone Firms Lash Out at Unwanted Texts
Faisal Maliki Baskoro | October 14, 2011

Share This Page
2
3
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

Mobile phone content providers called for better regulation following a recent public outcry over unwanted services that deduct credit from users with pre-paid accounts.

Yusuf Hasnoputro, an official at the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce, said on Friday that the content industry was on the verge of a total shut down as the public called for an end to unwanted mobile phone services.

“We are an infant industry, we are bound to make mistakes,” Yusuf said.

The Indonesia Telecommunication Regulatory Body (BRTI) and the Ministry of Communication on Tuesday issued a partial moratorium on content provider companies. Such a moratorium, Yusuf, said, could kill the industry.

The industry consists of about 400 content provider companies that employ about 2,000 people and generate around Rp 4 trillion ($450 million) in revenue annually from more than 15 million customers, Yusuf said.

“If they want to kill this infant industry, go ahead. But as an infant, we should be nurtured and regulated instead of being killed,” he said.

Indonesian consumer complaints have increased over suspicious losses of cellphone credits in recent weeks. BRTI said on Tuesday that there had been 9,638 complaints received by the regulatory body, of which 715 were related to phone credit or spam.

Indonesian consumer groups, including Voice of Humanism, are encouraging mobile phone users to turn off their phones today to protest against unwanted service costs.

There are three types of such complaints identified by the group. The first is fraudulent text messages that ask for the user to transfer a sum of money for reasons ranging from the welfare of a relative or to participate in a quiz. The second is text messages offering cheap loans. Both use SMS and are categorized as spam.

The third type is premium content subscription. Some customer complain that such services erode cellphone credit. Once a customer subscribes, it is complicated for them to leave the service.

“Customers opt for these premium services. Technically the content provider cannot charge the customer without their previous approval,” Yusuf said.

Yusuf said that the industry had not raised the tariff for premium content subscription since the early days of the industry in 2001.