Jakarta – The government was expected to issue a regulation on premium short message services (SMS) through cellular phones following a lot of complaints from the subscribers who claimed they have been harmed by the services. "We have received many inputs the supports of the telecommunications industry calling for clearer regulations on the matter," a member of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (BRTI), Heru Sutadi, said recently. Heru said BRTI would provide public consultations about regulations on premium SMS services in an effort to give certainty and continuity to the SMS-based business and protection to the subscribers.
During public consultations, BRTI had also received inputs from PT Excelcomindo Pratama, PT Bakrie Telecom, the Indonesian Telecommunications Users Group (ID TUG), PT Telkom, PT Indosat, the Indonesian Mobile Content Association (IMOCA) and PT Telkomsel.
"It was proposed that the regulation on premium SMS services would only serve as a means to protect the subscribers and stipulate duties of the agents of the business to protect the subscribers as mandated by Law No.8/1999 on subscriber protection," he said.
Meanwhile, the regulation on the patterns and duties of business agents pertaining to licenses is not tightly stipulated, as a self-regulation would be enough.
BRTI was also urged to impose firmer sanctions on violations, as the sanctions on SMS content providers were not specified in the draft regulation on fines, he said.
It was recorded that SMS services of every telecommunications operator gave a contribution on an average of 20 percent to the income of a telecommunications Service Company.
"The draft regulation is made due to a lot of complaints from the subscribers who feel to have been harmed by the premium SMS services, and thus the title of the draft regulation is proposed to be changed into 'The Use of Premium Short Message Services," he said. *ant