Finally, End Of Text Spam!read On!

[cyberdoc95]

[SIZE=3]Filipinos begin to bid goodbye to text spam[/SIZE]

Posted 05:46pm (Mla time) Mar 17, 2005
By Erwin Lemuel Oliva
INQ7.net

STARTING this week, mobile phone operators and content service providers are prohibited from sending unsolicited commercial text messages to local subscribers unless they have been given explicit permission, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has said.

The new regulation on text spam was issued this week, with the NTC adopting an "opt-in" policy on unsolicited commercial text messages or text spam.

Without fanfare (or opposition), the NTC issued the new regulations on Tuesday, after consulting with telecom service providers, content providers and other stakeholders in the industry.

Under the new rules on broadcast messaging services, a subscriber who has not opted-into broadcasted messaging services will not be charged for receiving them.

Subscribers who do not reply to these messages will be considered to have opted-out and such messages must be stopped. Subscribers may also opt-out without being charged, the NTC rules add.

There is also a rule that except for paid subscriptions, broadcast messages will not be sent between 9 p.m to 7 a.m.

NTC will also require broadcast messages to display senders’ Names with their valid addresses or numbers that subscribers can reply to or send their requests to stop any messages.

The government regulatory body now also requires mobile companies to act on spam-related consumer complaints 30 days after receiving them.

Violators of the circular shall subject to “appropriate administrative and penal sanctions in accordance with law.”

This new rule will apply to both short messaging service (SMS) and multi-media messaging service (MMS)-type of broadcast messages.

"Non-compliance and/or violation of any of the provisions of this Circular and other laws, rules and regulations of this Commission shall subject the violator/respondent to the imposition of appropriate administrative and penal sanctions, in accordance with law," the NTC said.

Reacting to the new rules, Globe Telecom spokesperson Jones Campos, said Globe see "no problems with this new rule but there are occasions [when] we have to send network advisories or announcements on a calamity, or things that would involve national security; that should be exempted from this rule."

"What is important is [that] consumers will not receive unnecessary text spam. But networks should be given leeway to send advisories to subscribers that are not commercial in nature," he added.

He said that Globe Telecom's content providers had been told not to charge subscribers for receiving broadcast messages unless they opt-in.

"We've told our content providers that they have to prepare for this eventuality. Content providers are the ones pushing broadcast messages so we have communicated with them previously that all text promos should be free," the executive said.

A copy of the new rule on text spam is available on the NTC's website.

Senator Manuel Roxas had previously declared text spam a form of invasion of privacy. The advertising community in the Philippines has been targeting mobile phone subscribers due to the ubiquity of the service, he said.

But "such [text] messages, by their very nature of being unsolicited, causes inconvenience and invasion of privacy, most especially when these subscribers, who opted to discontinue the receipt of spam text messages, continue to receive them," Roxas wrote in a resolution urging a congressional inquiry into the matter.

The Senator added that a mobile phone, unlike a computer, is a personal device for communication.

The Philippines uses text or short messaging heavily, with each subscriber sending an average of 252 messages per month, according to Taylor Nelson Sofres, an international marketing information group.

[falken]

It's about time! Thanks to the NTC.

[pissword]

buti nga naman

[jim]

Bow ako sa NTC!!!

[av8or5]

great...good thing

[mantoy]

haay salamat!

[theveed]

thank god, i get around 4 a day from smart.....

[Keito]

Galing ng NTC.

[van_wilder]

sana next naman email.

[boybi]

mahirap sa email, international na yan.