Thai mobile phone anti-spam drive

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Thai mobile phone anti-spam drive 
Bangkok Post: 11 Aug 2009
www.BangkokPost.com

Mobile phone providers ring in changes to jam the spam

Thailand's three major mobile phone operators - AIS, DTAC and True Move - have agreed to joint countermeasures to block up to 9 million spam text messages a day.

The three operators will spend 30 million baht on anti-spam software using an application centre to filter unsolicited advertising across their networks.

Customers at present can only inform their mobile operators to block spam messages if they are sent from within the same network.

Starting from Aug 31, the new software will be able to reduce SMS spam by up to 90% of the 10 million junk messages sent every day.

To block unwanted content, mobile users must contact their call centre numbers - AIS at 1175, DTAC at 1678 and True Move at 1331.

Spam SMS sent from any of the three networks will be automatically blocked within 24 hours of a complaint.

AIS has 28 million subscribers, DTAC 20 million and True Move 15 million. The country's largest operator handles about 100 million text messages a day, DTAC about the same, while True Move registers 70 million.

Each operator also handles another 10 million bulk text messages for businesses to send marketing and advertising content.

The amount of spam SMS has annoyed many customers, especially messages selling products and services.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, executive vice president for marketing at Advanced Info Service, said the cooperative effort was aimed at protecting customers from junk advertising messages.

The measures would not block "white" messages relating to financial information and financial transaction updates from banks.

Thana Thienachariya, chief commercial officer at DTAC, said bulk SMS was a unique low-cost advertising and marketing tool.

He said the new measures would cut into the revenue of the operators as it would affect the purchase of bulk SMS.

But they needed to protect consumers' rights, he said.

Suphakit Vuntanadit, chief commercial officer at True Move, said he hoped the cooperation could be extended to benefit mobile phone users.