ACMA clamps down on premium mobile services

Stuart Corner
Monday, 18 May 2009 12:14

IT Industry - Strategy

Welcoming registration by the ACMA, Comms Alliance CEO, Ann Hurley, said: "The industry fully supports this code and has already begun incorporating its obligations into contracts between carriers, aggregators and content providers and modifying advertising and service delivery mechanisms."

She added that, as a result, "carriers and content providers are reporting a significant decrease in customer issues in recent months and we expect this trend to continue as the code becomes fully operational."

However others are not convinced that the code will address the underlying problems with premium mobile services. When it was released and submitted to the ACMA for registration in March there were howls of protest from the Consumers Telecommunications Network. It and other consumer groups called on the ACMA not to register the code claiming that it did not provide adequate consumer protection and would do little to prevent consumers continuing to suffer significant detriment due to misleading industry practices.

CTN CEO, Teresa Corbin, told iTWire that: "Within 24 hours of the code being issued 20 consumer organisations have come together to write to the minister, the ACCC and the ACMA to oppose this code. And more are coming forward every day...many of these are dealing with a constant stream of consumer complaints about mobile premium services."

• Comms Alliance operates a webs site www.19sms.com.au to inform consumers on premium SMS services and Hurley said the site would be enhanced to include updated information on services offered by all content providers and tools to help customers manage their expenditure.