Lottery scheme through SMS illegal
KATHMANDU:
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) is planning to stop all lottery schemes through telecom network, if telecom service providers fail to get approval from the government for the lottery.
“Prior consent from the government is a must for any lottery-scheme,” Nepal Telecommunications Authority said, adding that the service providers must also take approval from the regulator for higher charge for those kinds of Short Message Service (SMS)-based lotteries.
“It is found that telecom service providers are charging rampantly up to Rs 10 under different names,” the authority source said, adding that such pricing mechanism is aimed at cheating consumers and should bring under the regulation.
The report was produced by the authority’s four-member committee headed by its director Kumar Prasad Sharma that was formed to carry out study on different aspect of Value Added Service of telecom service providers.
Value-added services are popular in telecommunications industry for non-core services. Value Added Services are often provided as an optional service along with voice services, but they could be offered and used by themselves without the voice service.
The committee has also recommended the authority to introduce clear-cut policy for content regulation. “Content regulation is very crucial since the telecom networks are heading towards converged network service with Value Added Service along with voice telephony,” according to the report.
The committee has also asked the government to clarify jurisdiction for content regulation of telecom services.
“The government should clearly give the responsibilities for the content regulation of telecom service providers,” it said, adding that the legal provision should clarify role of content regulator in different issues like the sorts of content and services telecom service providers offer, the value chains, business models and industry structures underlying the services and who produces the content.
“The policy should also clarify other issues including what level of content are being offered, what the audience are for the content, how they consume it and how it relates to their consumption of content via other media devices,” the report has clearly stated.
Content regulation is very relevant at present context since different media institutions, business firms and other stakeholders are using Value Added Service especially SMS to generate more profit, the authority source said, adding that it is not fair to charge 10 times higher for consumers in SMS services to make more profit for their own interest.
Source: THT
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) is planning to stop all lottery schemes through telecom network, if telecom service providers fail to get approval from the government for the lottery.
“Prior consent from the government is a must for any lottery-scheme,” Nepal Telecommunications Authority said, adding that the service providers must also take approval from the regulator for higher charge for those kinds of Short Message Service (SMS)-based lotteries.
“It is found that telecom service providers are charging rampantly up to Rs 10 under different names,” the authority source said, adding that such pricing mechanism is aimed at cheating consumers and should bring under the regulation.
The report was produced by the authority’s four-member committee headed by its director Kumar Prasad Sharma that was formed to carry out study on different aspect of Value Added Service of telecom service providers.
Value-added services are popular in telecommunications industry for non-core services. Value Added Services are often provided as an optional service along with voice services, but they could be offered and used by themselves without the voice service.
The committee has also recommended the authority to introduce clear-cut policy for content regulation. “Content regulation is very crucial since the telecom networks are heading towards converged network service with Value Added Service along with voice telephony,” according to the report.
The committee has also asked the government to clarify jurisdiction for content regulation of telecom services.
“The government should clearly give the responsibilities for the content regulation of telecom service providers,” it said, adding that the legal provision should clarify role of content regulator in different issues like the sorts of content and services telecom service providers offer, the value chains, business models and industry structures underlying the services and who produces the content.
“The policy should also clarify other issues including what level of content are being offered, what the audience are for the content, how they consume it and how it relates to their consumption of content via other media devices,” the report has clearly stated.
Content regulation is very relevant at present context since different media institutions, business firms and other stakeholders are using Value Added Service especially SMS to generate more profit, the authority source said, adding that it is not fair to charge 10 times higher for consumers in SMS services to make more profit for their own interest.
Source: THT
