ACMA heavies Optus over delays in implementing premium SMS barring

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 August 2010 14:17

IT Policy - Regulation

The ACMA has extracted enforceable undertakings from Optus following Optus' inability to meet the 1 July 2010 deadline to have in place a system that would enable its mobile customers to request barring of premium SMS messages.

Optus has commited to have the system in place by 11 October and to put in place a range of measures in the interim to assist customers who want premium SMS barred on their phones. It has also commited to, by the same date, having in place a system that will enable some 30 resellers of its mobile services to be in compliance with the requirement.

However the system will go beyond the ACMA's requirements in that it will, according to Optus' web site, allow both prepaid and postpaid customers to specify a monthly spending limit on premium SMS. The default limit will be $200 per month for postpaid customers. There will be no default limit for prepaid customers.

Although Telstra, Three and Vodafone all offer barring, none have this level of sophistication: it's all or nothing.

Optus issued a statement - the wording and timing of which had been agreed with the ACMA as part of its undertaking - saying: "Optus regrets any inconvenience caused by the late delivery of the barring service, which has been caused by unavoidable delays in building the capability."

Optus had warned the ACMA in advance of the 1 July deadline that it would be unable to meet it and on 7 June gave the ACMA a commitment to have the system operational by 11 October. In the meantime it is required to maintain a register of all customer requests for premium SMS barring and to implement these when the system goes live.

It will also identify all customers who have used premium SMS services from 7 March to 31 July and send them an SMS saying "From 11 Oct Optus will have a free premium SMS barring service. You can register now by calling customer care. For more details visit optus.com.au/psms."

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