HONG KONG: The city's mobile phone network operators will be hammering out a code of practice with the Office of the Telecommunication Authority in the wake of rising complaints over text message hidden charges.

The code of practice will include breakdowns on exact charges and the services involved along with easy instructions on how to cancel features in billing forms without disrupting regular phone service, Director-General of OFTA Marion Lai Chan Chi-kuen said, following a meeting yesterday with the city's five major mobile phone network operators.

Mobile service providers have pledged to address a quagmire of mobile phone charges that have left some unwitting consumers with thousands of dollars in hidden fees.

The city's mobile service providers have agreed in principle to make mobile service billing more transparent, with clear breakdowns of separate services and costs.

The agreement came after a meeting with the Office of the Telecommunications Authority yesterday.

Service providers also agreed to offer clear and concise means to cancel services without affecting other service features, an OFTA spokeswoman said.

OFTA will be releasing a booklet in a month's time to further clarify charges and how to amend them.

Yesterday's meeting's agenda closely mirrored calls by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan, who was reacting to a number of mobile phone subscribers' falling prey to hidden fees that came with cellular phone text message content.

The Consumer Council received 470 complaints over short message services in the first 11 months of the year. More than 600 complaints were received last year, up from 244 in 2007 and 85 in 2006.

"People may have authorized the receiving of paid messages without realizing it," the head of the council's publicity and community relations committee, Ambrose Ho, said.

Ho said mobile phone users who read or replied to advertising SMS messages could be caught up in hidden fees along with those who signed up for free services through websites.

One user had to contend with a HK$10,000 bill after signing up for a friend-finding service, while another who gave his phone number for a free lucky draw ended up with a HK$70 bill instead.

In another case a user was charged HK$2,128 for 700 messages that were sent to him in only two days.

Other scams lured unwitting users with personality and IQ tests, social networking services and free ring tones.

Information Technology lawmaker Sampson Tam Wai-ho said content providers should have preset limits on charges, such as credit cards, which could be raised with the user's verbal consent.

"Such an approach would limit the astronomical fees users rack up without knowing it," he said.

A SmarTone-Vodaphone spokeswoman said the company would terminate contracts with content providers if there were problems.

(HK Edition 12/17/2009 page4)