Posted on 05/27/2005 7:30:38 AM PDT by Mike Bates
Two U.S.-based mobile industry groups are trying to rein in a Wild West market for cell-phone downloads, publishing a set of "best practices" for selling content such as ringtones, daily messages, and screen backgrounds.
Some mobile phone users have lashed out against advertising and sales methods for mobile content sold via text messages, saying they ended up subscribed to ongoing services without knowing it. Earlier this year, a consumer who used VeriSign's Jamster content download service sued the company for alleged fraud and false advertising.
Earlier this week, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) laid down guidelines they said were written by a committee that represented the five biggest U.S. mobile operators as well as content providers and aggregators.
The groups created the document so carriers would have a consistent set of rules for evaluating how potential partners do business, says Soren Schafft, vice president of products and operations at The Mobile Media Co., a content aggregator in Oslo, Norway, who was on the committee.
"It says you're not allowed to provide services to people who don't want those services. And there's a set of methods for getting people to understand what the terms are and to agree to those terms," Schafft says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
As usual.
What you will never find on a cell phone...a running tally of minutes used.
Thought some phones have that. If not, just must be an oversight.
It would be detrimental to their purpose...use up minutes.
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