Watchdog warns on premium rate text services

THE watchdog body in charge of policing Ireland’s premium rate telecommunications service says that people fail to read the small print and often don’t realise how much the information costs or how to stop subscription to the service.

Large numbers of self-confessed sports fans are signed up to mobile phone subscription schemes that send them regular updates on their favourite teams’ results.

Many more mobile phone users receive regular traffic, weather and news alerts to their handset via text message.

However, watchdog body Regtel said that people have a habit of signing up to a scheme and then deleting the initial, compulsory message which outlines cost and conditions of the scheme.

Regulator Pat Breen said: “These schemes are popular amongst people but people aren’t reading the subscription message and we’re getting large numbers of calls from people who don’t know how to stop the charges which come at a premium rate.”

To stop these messages, all a phone owner has to do is text ‘stop’ to the premium text company.

In its annual report published last year, Regtel said 94% of the complaints were to do with subscription services, such as unsolicited text messages.

Revenues from premium rate telecommunication services rose by 17% up to March 2007, to €95 million with mobile phone texting seen as the major driver.

Premium SMS services began from a low base around three years ago and already last year were overtaking the returns from the fixed-line premium rate sector — not too surprising given the amount of mobile phones in circulation — more than 4.7 million.

In the last couple of years, the migration of fixed-line telephony services to the mobile platform, extensive advertising of premium SMS services, the large volume of mobile subscribers and the impact of the internet have combined to stagnate the premium rate market for fixed-line operators.

In addition, charges mobile consumers pay when connecting to fix-line premium rate services and the familiarity factor when it comes to using mobile technology have affected the premium rate market for fixed-line operators.