New premium rate mobile rules for UK

Premium phone service regulator PhonepayPlus has set out new measures for the mobile premium content market. With immediate effect companies offering mobile subscription services charging over £4.50 a week or applying pay-per-page mobile internet charges must apply for permission from PhonepayPlus. In addition, customers must receive a free confirmation text message and must reply to that text before the service starts. [Press release]

New protection for customers using premium-rate mobile services

PhonepayPlus, the UK regulator for services that are charged via your phone account, has announced a number of measures designed to protect customers. It says any subscription service that does not allow customers to stop it easily and quickly will be barred from operation. In addition, it's proposing new rules - potentially introduced at the end of the year - that will insist:

• Customers are told the full cost of any subscription service when they join;
• Customers are asked to actively confirm they wish to subscribe after they've been shown the costs;
• No use of ‘free' or similar words will be allowed in promotional material;
• Any failure to honour the STOP command (replying to an unwanted text message with 'STOP' ) will result in an immediate bar on the service while PhonepayPlus investigates.

[Press release]

Premium rate phone watchdog to investigate mobile phone promotions

PhonepayPlus, the premium rate phone regulator, has said it will be reviewing premium services on mobile phones. The UK market is estimated to be worth around £350 million annually. The regulator will look at ringtones, games and other chargeable downloads, with a particular focus on unsolicited promotions, price transparency and subscription services. (PhonepayPlus was previously known as ICSTIS; it's the regulator for services that allow you to charge purchases to your phone account). [Press release]

Regulator warns young people about SMS scams

25,000 mobile phone customers aged 18-24 have been sent a message from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) telling them they might have won £1,000 in cash. It was followed by a second message letting them know the message was part of a warning about scams. The original text said: Urgent! U may have won £1k cash with '2 Good 2 B True'. The follow-up message promoted SMSus, a new text message service from premium rate regulator PhonepayPlus, which allows users to text details of a premium rate number or shortcode they are suspicious about to 76787. They'll then be told the cost of using the premium rate number, details of the service provider and how to contact them. The service is free for most people but will cost no more than 12p. [Sources: BBC News, PhonepayPlus PDF press release]