Some time ago we informed about a change in regulation of Belgian premium rate numbers. On 1st of April, 2008 most of the rules of the royal decree of April 2007 entered into force.

Some prefixes (077, 0903) are discontinued

New prefixes are introduced (0904, 0906, 0907)

The already existing limit of  maximum call duration was changed from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, with the service provider responsible to cut the call after that time.  The maximum call duration is not  applicable for 070 numbers.

A free tariff announcement has been introduced. Is is obligatory

• for all 090x numbers over 1 € per call or per minute
• for all 070 numbers over 0,30 € / minute (landlines) or 0,60 € / minute (mobiles) (This was already introduced in 2007)

We will do this tariff announcement for our clients free of charge.

The changes caused a lot of confusion and at the moment we still are not able to offer most tariffs. We will keep our website up do date and add tariffs as soon as information comes in.

Posted on April 16th, 2008 by lbraum
Filed under: Belgium | No Comments »

Since today we are offering the whole range of Premium Rate Numbers from Ireland again. With low routing cost and a good payout we expect a profitable business for our customers. All information can be seen at http://www.premium-rates.com/premium-rate-ireland.htm .

Irish numbers are available with minute-based (per-minute) and mit event-based (per-call) tariff. Data or dialer traffic is not possible. Adult is also not allowed, however, there are rumors that the highest minute-based tariff is used often for that purpose. “In my experience they are on one hand avid users of porn and on the other devout catholics”, said a well-known specialist of Irish mentality.

Posted on April 8th, 2008 by lbraum
Filed under: Ireland | No Comments »

Strengthening consumer protection in participation television | Ofcom
Ofcom announced today measures to strengthen viewer and consumer protection in participation TV programmes through new mandatory licence conditions for television broadcasters.

Participation TV is programming which invites viewers to interact, often by using premium rate telephone services (PRS), such as television voting lines and competitions.

Separately, PhonepayPlus, the agency which carries out the day-to-day regulation of the PRS market on Ofcom’s behalf , has today announced that service providers looking to provide PRS to broadcasters must first seek its permission. Providers will need to meet a number of conditions, such as ensuring that lines are closed promptly.

Failures in the use of PRS by broadcasters have been at the forefront of Ofcom’s activity over the last 12 months. Ofcom commissioned a thorough and searching inquiry, led by Richard Ayre, into the compliance failures and published a Consultation document in July 2007 on the inquiry’s recommendations. In addition, Ofcom has imposed financial penalties totalling over £3.5 million against broadcasters found in breach of its Broadcasting Code.

The new licence conditions set out today will ensure that audiences, including those who choose to participate in programmes, are adequately protected and will help restore trust in participation TV by allowing early detection of compliance issues . These new conditions bring to an end the process initiated by the Ayre inquiry and its recommendations.

The new licence conditions state that:

* Where television broadcasters invite viewers to participate in programmes, they are directly responsible for the handling of all communications - whether by phone, email or post - from viewers.
* Television broadcasters must obtain independent third-party verification of all systems used in PRS voting and competitions . Ofcom will undertake an initial 12 to 18 month programme of unannounced spot-checks to ensure broadcasters are complying with this requirement.

In addition, Ofcom will be issuing new guidance which clarifies broadcasters’ responsibilities under the Broadcasting Code for voting and competitions.

Ofcom will write to television licensees regarding these changes immediately. Licensees will be given a period of four weeks to make representations to Ofcom on the changes. Ofcom expects all broadcasters using PRS voting and competitions to have third party verification arrangements in place by the end of June 2008.

Posted on February 19th, 2008 by lbraum
Filed under: UK, Call-In TV | No Comments »

In Italy, TV Call-In shows are licensed. That is not part of the regulation, but of the law itself. Articulo 88 de Regio Decreto No. 773, Testo Unico delle Leggi di Pubblica Sicurezza, dated June 18, 1931, says that the right to operate lotteries, gambling or prognostic games is allowed only to the state or licensed institutions. Media companies are not allowed to combine premium rate numbers with a chance of winning, since this would be gambling.

The spectrum covered by this resolution is quite broad: The use of premium rate numbers for the candidate hotline of the Italian version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire” was declined because the ultimate winner has a chance to win money.

Posted on January 9th, 2008 by lbraum
Filed under: Call-In TV, Italy | No Comments »

New rules for restricting access to age restricted content (commercial MA15+ content and R18+ content) either hosted in Australia or provided from Australia will commence from 20 January 2008.

The new rules made by ACMA on 20 December 2007 are specified in the Restricted Access System Declaration 2007 (PDF 38 kb, Word 127 kb), and in the Explanatory Statement to the Declaration (PDF 37 kb, Word 95 kb) and are made in accordance with the new regulation of content framework under Schedule 7 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which also commences on 20 January 2008.

The new regulatory framework will apply to most content service providers who supply content via a carriage service. Access to commercial MA15+ and R18+ content provided to consumers as internet content, live content via the internet, mobile premium services including mobile portal and premium rate SMS/MMS services, and premium rate voice services will be subject to the restricted access rules. Telephone sex services will be subject to the restricted access declaration from 20 July 2008 when provisions of Part 9A of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 governing such services are repealed.

The new rules have been developed following consultation with stakeholders and followed the release by ACMA of a draft declaration and a discussion paper in October 2007.

Here is the link to the full article.

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: Australia | No Comments »

Broadcasting - News - Ofcom to direct PhonepayPlus - Digital Spy
Ofcom is to take a more active role in regulating the premium rate telephony services industry.

Effective immediately, existing regulator PhonepayPlus - previously known as ICSTIS - will “act as the agency which carries out the day-to-day regulation of the PRS market on Ofcom’s behalf”.

All appointments and re-appointments to the board of PhonepayPlus will be subject to Ofcom approval, and Ofcom will “have the ability to give PhonepayPlus direction on issues which it considers of particular importance or where clarity of responsibility needs to be explicit”.

Ofcom cited “increasing areas of overlap” between premium rate services and other parts of its remit - in particular the use of services within television programming - as the reason for the change.

Posted on December 12th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: UK | No Comments »

Our payouts for Premium Rate Numbers in Belgium have been changed due to a supplier change. Please update your offering if you use our prices as a basis.

Also we have to announce that in Belgium a major change in Premium Rate Number regulation is to be expected. Most tariffs will change, payouts too. The Premium Rate number range for adult services will change, some tariffs will disappear. For example will the 077 range be replaced by 0906, and 0903 will be replaced by a 0907 range.

There will be an obligatory tariff announcement (we’ll do that for you) for tariffs over 1.00 €/minute and a 10 minute maximum call length for tariffs over 1.00 €

Not all details are clear yet, this changes will become effective at April 1st, 2008. We’ll keep you informed.

Posted on November 19th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: Belgium | No Comments »

Tan Hui Leng
huileng@mediacorp.com.sg

PERHAPS it has happened to you — you receive an SMS asking you to subscribe to a joke-a-day service, and you message back: “Who is this?”. The next thing you know, the subscription charges showed up on your mobile phone bill.  Such dubious practices should go out the window once a code of conduct compiled by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) kicks in on Dec 16.

Ring tones, chat services and some 250 “premium rate” service providers will have to abide by this code which will — for one — lay out illustrations of what the IDA finds to be unacceptable advertising methods. This includes not using “Free” prominently in the headline and stating the applicable charges in fine print at the bottom of the advertisement.

All relevant charges should be prominently displayed. And customers must explicitly agree to a service before vendors can collect subscription fees. Billing operators, such as telecommunications companies, will also be regulated. They must ensure that the service providers’ names, the name of the service purchased and customer service hotline number appear in the bills. Furthermore, they must provide assistance in disputes and cannot demand payment before disputes are resolved. All three telcos contacted yesterday said they already do help customers resolve such disputes.

The Code of Practice for Provision of Premium Rate Services will be over and above the Telecom Competition Code. If found to be in breach, a service provider or billing network operator may be fined up to $1 million and have its licence suspended or revoked.

The IDA has already been regulating the industry but the fast-growing field needs more clarity for consumers and providers. In the cover note to the code, the IDA said that it had seen a significant increase in the number of consumer complaints in the last two years.

Since January last year, enforcement action has been taken against 24 vendors. In February last year, service provider mTouche sent unsolicited Chinese New Year greetings via SMS to 300,000 consumers and charged $1 for each message. It was fined $150,000 and suspended for six months. In another instance, Mobile365 was fined $20,000 for sending out unsolicited advertisements for a football quiz service via SMS.

Prior to finalising the code, the IDA had called for a public consultation in May. Primary concerns among premium service providers and billing network operators included excessive regulation and increased costs.

In its feedback on the IDA proposal, eFusion (which runs a mobile entertainment business unit) said that sending weekly reminders would incur business costs and thin the industry margin unnecessarily. Another content provider, i-WAP, said the proposed code tried to cover too great a scope. “Our impression is that the code tries to provide a contingency for every perceivable argument. It is like a taxi carrying 50 spare tyres to provide safety for a field day where the taxi could squeeze 50 passengers for a single trip,” it said.

However, the IDA said the code will enable best practices to be adopted in the industry. It has also clarified details in the final draft of the code. “By enhancing consumers’ confidence in using premium rate services, service providers benefit too because it will help to attract more users and the industry can continue to grow,” said the IDA’s deputy chief executive and director-general of telecoms, Mr Leong Keng Thai.

Posted on November 16th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: Singapore | No Comments »

“Viviane Reding’s proposals are totally unhelpful” said Paul Champsaur, Chairman of the Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes (Arcep), to the French newspaper “Les Echos” about an approach to establish an EU Telecom regulator.

Viviane Reding wants to establish a pan-European telecom market authority. Do you agree with this idea?

No, we disagree on this point. It might be appropriate to create an agency responsible for dealing with technical issues in the sector, such as network security or spectrum management, at European level, but Viviane Reding’s plans go beyond this. The creation of a European regulator would significantly alter the relationship between Member States and the Commission. Europe is not a federal state. The Union functions on the basis of close cooperation between Member States and the European institutions, but the latter are not substitutes for those States. In the case of this proposal, that would be the case. Furthermore, telecoms markets are strongly rooted in their respective national environments.

Moreover, the Commission has not been sufficiently involved in the analysis of the electronic communications markets since 2002 and has not made use of the expertise of the European Regulators Group (ERG). It has not provided the guidance one might have expected in the case of fundamental issues such as high-speed broadband or the distortion of competition between fixed and mobile telephony. What Viviane Reding seeks to achieve by creating this agency is to extend its powers through an additional layer of bureaucracy.

But regulation is not applied in the same way in each country and that is preventing the creation of a single telecoms market …

Exactly – the Commission has never played this sort of harmonising role on a European scale. In the only real cross-border market – international roaming pricing – it has taken a decision under duress. It corrected a distortion of the market which had existed for several years, but only intervened after January 2006 when the ERG called for definitive action to be taken. How would the creation of an agency in Brussels change things? The European Union needs to be harmonised, but it is necessary for all the national regulators to work under the aegis of the Commission, which in turn should be responsible for providing a lead on the major issues and for taking decisions concerning harmonisation.

The European Commission wants to be able to break up the incumbent operators. Are you in favour of this in France?

Dividing the incumbent’s business into two separate entities, with network operations on the one side and services on the other, can work in certain countries. However, in France, conditions are not right for splitting France Télécom’s operations in two. Deciding to separate the network from the services is to acknowledge that the network, i.e. the local loop connecting the subscribers (currently copper), is a natural monopoly. This is contrary to the principles by which Europe has so far been guided, based on competition by means of investment by new entrants in their own infrastructures.

The Commission considers that each frequency band should be able to be used for either audiovisual or telecoms services. What is your view?

Europe lacks harmonisation as far as spectrum usage is concerned. It is extraordinary that the Union of 27 is not capable of defining a common position for the World Radiocommunication Conference currently underway in Geneva, which is charged with defining the terms for usage of the spectrum freed up by the switch-off of analogue TV services. Once again, this is the Commission’s responsibility. If the British give a particular frequency band to the highest bidder – a telecoms operator – and the Belgians allocate the same one to a broadcasting company, this will cause problems, because a television transmitter has a range of 500 kilometres, which means that the citizens of London wouldn’t be able to use their mobile operator’s services!

All in all, what is your opinion of Viviane Reding’s proposals?

They are totally unhelpful. Viviane Reding has not dealt with the question of future regulation, including in particular incentives for rolling out optical fibre networks. She is setting Europe on a path which will lead to opposition to change and to conflict with the national regulators.

Posted on November 16th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: France | No Comments »

Over 2,000 complaints against providers of premium rate phone services were lodged with Regtel last year, according to a new report. Regtel’s annual report reveals that overall approximately 30,000 calls were made to its call centre in the year to March, of which 80 percent were related to subscription services. Of the 30,000 calls, a total of 2,111 were complaints, 94 percent of which were related to subscription services.

The majority of complaints were from consumers who claimed they had never subscribed to premium rate services, yet still found themselves being billed. Others focused on problems with trying to opt-out of such services. A large number of parents also contacted the regulator with complaints about their children having unwittingly subscribed to expensive premium rate services.

The 2,111 complaints received by the regulator to the end of March would seem to mark a substantial decline given that Regtel’s last report — which was issued earlier this year — revealed 13,321 complaints. However, the latest report has reclassified the figures to separate general enquiries from actual complaints with many calls that would have fallen into the complaint category now being treated as general enquiries.

Despite the reclassification though, there has been a decline in complaints, a decline the regulator, Pat Breen, attributes to steps taken by Regtel to inform consumers about premium rate services.

Earlier this year an explanatory information leaflet on how to deal with unwanted text messages was circulated, while in late summer the regulator launched its ‘STOP’ campaign, which advises consumers how to unsubscribe from premium rate phone services.

“The subscription element still makes up the bulk of complaints at present, but the message does now seem to be getting through,” Breen told ENN.

“What seems to have happened in a lot of cases is that people subscribe to a service but don’t bother to read the first text message they receive which gives them details about the service, including costs and details on how to unsubscribe. It appears that many consumers delete that message and the repeated messages they get each time they’ve spent EUR20 on a particular service,” he added.

Breen added that things are likely to improve further with the introduction of a revised code of practice which will feature more stringent requirements for premium rate service providers.

Although the number of complaints filed with Regtel remains relatively high, it seems that there’s little let-up in the demand for premium rate services, with revenues of EUR94 million for the sector in the year to March. Approximately two thirds of this amount was spent on premium SMS with the remainder spent on fixed line calls.

Overall, 112 million fixed line and SMS premium rate calls were made to a variety of services, including ringtones, logos/wallpapers, competitions, information, Tarot and horoscope services. According to Regtel, a growing trend is the use of fixed line premium rate numbers to make international calls.

Posted on November 15th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: Ireland | No Comments »