Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 15 Aug 2003 12:46

Premium rate regulator ICSTIS has proposed that the word STOP be adopted as a universal keyword command to end the flow premium rate message services.

With many different ways of ending a subscription to a premium service, users have often been confused and found stopping premium rate messages dificult. As a result ICSTIS has decided that in the interests of simplicity, one word – ‘stop’ – should be adopted as the universal command to exit services.

Where users have already subscribed to services, the original command to unsubscribe will be allowed to be used for a period of two months. New advertising material for existing services must, however, use the new universal ‘stop’ command, while services launched after 1 August 2003 must also use the new command.

With many service providers operating numerous services on one short code number, the Committee believes that using the ‘stop’ command on its own would not work as users signed up to more than one service on the same short code would exit all services.

Such an effect would be disproportionate to the harm the Committee is attempting to address. The Guideline therefore stipulates that the word ‘stop’ be used in conjunction with the service name (for example, ‘stop chat’ or ‘stop ringtone’). Neither word should be case sensitive and there should be no more than one character space between the two words.

When does a service start and when does it finish?

ICSTIS believes that the interpretation of what constitutes a ‘service’ is largely dependent on what is promised in the accompanying advertising or promotional material. For example, if users are told that they will receive one message per day for five days, the duration of the service will be five days. For those services that continue until such time as users unsubscribe, the standard and specific provisions of the Code of Practice still apply. A service aimed at children, for example, promising a daily ringtone at £1.00 each will have to end after three days to comply with the £3.00 maximum children’s cost.

Unsubscribing from services

service providers also be allowed to provide details on how to unsubscribe from services as soon as reasonably possible after users have first subscribed. This would enable service providers to send a first message detailing all of the information needed by users to opt in and mean that instructions on unsubscribing only need to be sent to those who have opted in.

Instruction Message

The guidelines require service providers to send users, prior to using services, a free instruction message, which they should be advised to keep, on how to unsubscribe from a service. This initiative will be introduced on a six-month trial basis.

Text Chat Definitions

They also give a specific definition of ‘text chat’ services to distinguish them from genuine dating services require providers of adult text chat services to ask for users’ dates of birth (in the format dd/mm/yy or a variation such as dd.mm.yy) or to enter their ages in numbers or letters.

The proposals come as part of the revised ICSTIS premium rate SMS Guidelines that came into effect on 1 August 2003, copies of which are available at www.icstis.org.uk A proposed new SMS Guideline was first issued for consultation in December 2002, following significant developments in the premium rate SMS sector since the original reverse-billed premium rate SMS Guideline came into effect in May that year.