Mobile phone users will be able to unsubscribe from premium rate
services more easily from 1st August simply by texting the word
"STOP" to the provider, according to industry group the Mobile Data
Association (MDA).
The scheme is part of a new mobile content Code of Practice
agreed among mobile phone operators in January, and implements part
of a new set of texting guidelines issued by industry regulator
ICSTIS (the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards
of Telephone Information Services) in July last year. This included
a universal "stop" command for all services.
Under the new scheme, as from 1st August the providers of new
and existing premium rate text and content services will have to
cancel services offered to users if those users text the keyword
"STOP" to them. Third party providers will have to comply with the
scheme from 1st November.
"I am pleased that progress in protecting consumer choice, an
issue of concern for everyone in the mobile telecoms industry, is
being made through our organisation," said MDA's chairman Mike
Short.
