PhonepayPlus’ recent review of mobile phone-paid services highlighted an issue with promotional material for various text-based Virtual Chat Services which implied that users may be able to meet other members of the public as a consequence of calling or texting the service. 

This promotional material either implies or explicitly states that the people it features have joined the advertised dating service in order to meet other members of the public, and so may raise expectations that any meeting would result in sexual liaison.

PhonepayPlus has evidence that a significant number of these claims are misleading.  Furthermore, in some cases operators working for Virtual Chat Services have been advertised as genuine “contacts,” something we have concluded misleads consumers into believing they are communicating with another member of the public.

The Mobile Review’s conclusion can be found on pages 29-31 of the Final Policy Statement.

The Policy Statement’s main recommendation in respect of Text-based Virtual Chat and Date Services was as follows:

Are you looking for premium phone lines, non-geographic numbers or Reverse Billing SMS services operated by network operator MX Telecom Ltd?

If so Phonenumbers4u Ltd may be able to secure them for you as we have many contacts in the Premium Rate Industry and at the PRA (Premium Rate Association) who should be able to secure lines from MX Telecom.

Whether these be 0904 numbers or the new premium rate number prefixes such as 09110 or 0982 lines providing you’re offering a PhonePayPlus and Ofcom compliant service and are expecting reasonable usage on your lines we should be able to obtain services from this network operator on your behalf.

Interested? Call: 0871 918 0604 or email: info@phonenumbers4u.com

Are you looking for Premium SMS or standard rate SMS services from Tanla Mobile Ltd? If so Phonenumbers4u has an account with this SMS Aggregator and should more than likely be able to secure you with text based services at competitive rates.

With Premium SMS services on 25p, 50p, £1.00, £1.50, £5.00 and now even £10 per SMS you have complete control over the tariff and service that you’d like to run.

Whether this be SMS Competititions, SMS Chat, Ringtones, Horoscope services partnered with high payouts and Tanla Mobile’s sophisticated ICM (Interactive Campaign Manager) you can easily and cost effectively distribute phone based content.

Looking for Premium Rate SMS solutions from Tanla Mobile Ltd? Call us on: 0871 918 0604 or email: info@phonenumbers4u.com with your requirements and we can see what rates we can secure you from Tanla Solutions.

NEW MEASURES FOR MOBILE PHONE-PAID SERVICES AND THEIR MARKETING

PhonepayPlus has today issued a final statement on mobile phone-paid services and their marketing setting out new measures to protect the public from a range of practices in the mobile premium content market which are causing complaints and undermining consumers’ trust.Having taken into account stakeholder feedback, PhonepayPlus is implementing the following rules:-         

Prior permission: providers offering mobile subscription services charging over £4.50 in any given week or applying pay-per-page charges on the mobile internet must first apply for permission from PhonepayPlus; -

Active confirmation: as part of the prior permission undertaking, any consumer joining a subscription service must first receive a free confirmation text message detailing the cost and conditions of the service. The consumer cannot be charged until they have confirmed their subscription by replying to that text.
Hundreds of thousands of consumers use premium mobile services daily. 

These include downloading ringtones, pictures and games, as well as participating in television programmes, receiving news alerts, finding contact details and entering competitions.

Most of these services operate with no problem but some companies have adopted practices which are leading to increased consumer complaints. PhonepayPlus’ review of the premium mobile sector was prompted by a worrying 108% increase in mobile-related complaints received from 2006/7 to 2007/8. This was accompanied by anecdotal evidence of consumers, including young people, being charged several thousand pounds in some cases as a result of bad practice by content and service providers.

Impact
PhonepayPlus has issued a Statement of Expectation alongside the final statement, which summarises the changes and actions service providers may need to take in order to remain compliant.Also detailed in the statement are rules pertaining to:  

Price transparency: price information must be clearly displayed - as prominent as any other aspect of the promotion. Promotional material must not suggest any premium rate product or download is ‘free’;-   

Promotional text messages: providers sending free promotional messages must inform recipients that the message is free and make clear how to opt out of receiving similar messages in the future; 

STOP: providers offering subscription services or sending promotional text messages must enable consumers to easily opt out of the service via the ‘STOP’ command. Any failure of this command already results in the service being immediately shut down while PhonepayPlus investigates

Marketing lists: companies that sell or otherwise trade third party marketing lists must provide evidence upon request by PhonepayPlus that recipients have agreed to receive promotional text messages for particular types of services; 

Chat: text-based chat services must not imply that users are exchanging messages with other individuals, or that customers will be able to meet people by using the service, unless this is the case.

Commenting on the new regulations Paul Whiteing, Acting CEO of PhonepayPlus, said: “There are many innovative, useful and fun services available to consumers via their mobiles. These new measures are targeted at a small number of providers who do not offer services to customers in a fair and straightforward way. Consumers should not need to work hard to understand the full price of any service. “The guidelines are the result of intensive research in to the mobile market, and PhonepayPlus expects them to result in fewer complaints and greater confidence in the market.”      

 

British Telecom in recent weeks has shocked much of the telecoms industry in announcing that the national rate prefix 0870 and local rate number prefix 0845 will be included in their customers “Inclusive Minutes”.

These are typically numbers that charge callers a higher rate than the typical 01 or 02 geographic landline prefix however although some call them premium rate numbers they are not.

Network Operators including Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless and an array of private network operators generate a return from these calls and so due to this it’s reported that BT have put aside £10m to offer this package to it’s residential customers.

Although the revenue share on the 0870 range is soon to be eliminated currently calls to the number run at around 8.0p per minute and so customers who call businesses frequently will enjoy rather large savings with this new package.