Fair play in dealing with 090x value-added services
Lausanne/Zurich/Berne (ots)
Orange, sunrise and Swisscom (Fixnet, Mobile and Enterprise Solutions) will in future be taking a joint stance against misuse by providers of chargeable 090x numbers. To this end an agreement governing misuse of value-added services offered via the telephone or Internet (dialer) has been reached.
A wide range of companies is involved in the provision of value-added services. The customer normally pays the network operator (e.g. Orange, sunrise, Swisscom) for such services, who carries out billing on behalf of the telecoms provider with whom the 090x number of the service provider is registered. The 090x service provider bares sole responsibility for the content and operation of the offering including one-off charges and charges per minute.
Agreement in contractual form
In future, Orange, sunrise and Swisscom will only carry out billing for companies that sign the contractual agreement governing misuse of value-added services. The agreement will be integrated in the existing interconnection contracts with the service providers. Providers of value-added service numbers violating these rules will in future no longer be paid their revenue share. If a provider fails to sign this agreement, it will be obliged to carry out billing itself.
If misuse is detected as a result of frequent and justified customer complaints, conspicuous traffic trends or the initiation of proceedings by OFCOM, revenue payments to the service provider will be stopped. In the event of repeated misuse of value-added service numbers the collection service will be cancelled. Unfortunately, network operators are not legally permitted to completely deactivate value-added service numbers in the event of misuse, which would be the most effective measure to take.
Customer protection at the forefront
The network operators mentioned above have decided to take these measures in order to increase the benefits of value-added services and combat misuse more effectively. First and foremost it is intended to offer customers of the network operators enhanced protection. Moreover, the continued successful existence of fair value-added service offerings can only be guaranteed by means of a rigorous clamp-down on misuse.
This action represents a tightening-up of existing measures including those contained in the Sicta cross-sector agreement and will help to prevent the misuse of 090x numbers.
Contacts:
Orange Communications SA World Trade Center Avenue de Gratta-Paille 2 P.O. Box 455 CH-1000 Lausanne 30
Therese Wenger, Media Relations Tel. +41/21/216'10'16 Fax +41/21/216'10'15 Orange +41/78/787'10'16 E-mail: therese.wenger@orange.ch Internet: http://www.orange.ch
sunrise Media Hotline Thurgauerstrasse 60 P.O. Box 8322 8050 Zurich Tel. 0800'333'000 Fax 0800'333'001 E-Mail: media@sunrise.net Internet: http://www.sunrise.ch
Swisscom Ltd Alte Tiefenaustrasse 6 CH-3048 Worblaufen
Group Media Relations Tel. +41/31/342'91'93 Fax +41/31/342'06'70 E-Mail: media@swisscom.com Internet: http://www.swisscom-fixnet.ch