Mobile firms see no need for law on spam
Hong Kong mobile-phone operators say there is no need for special legislation to regulate unsolicited text and multimedia messages in their industry, despite junk mail - or spam - being a key nuisance for internet users.
A voluntary code of practice implemented by the city's six mobile operators in December 2001 was sufficient to limit unsolicited promotional messages, they said.
Unlike spam e-mail, sending text and multimedia messages incurred a cost, making spam campaigns prohibitive, they said.
In a June consultation paper, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) proposed new legislation to combat spam e-mail, saying laws should also be considered for unsolicited mobile messages.
In response, Hutchison Telecom, CSL, SmarTone and China Resources Peoples Telephone said none were needed, claiming spam was insignificant issue compared with the internet, where an estimated 50 per cent of all e-mail traffic in Hong Kong is unsolicited.
Unnecessary regulation could be costly for mobile operators, which might hinder development of the markets for short messaging services (SMS) and multimedia messaging services (MMS), the operators said.
Hutchison Telecom said it was premature for Hong Kong to follow the example of other governments.
'Anti-spam laws in developed nations are still young and subject to legal challenges,' it said, urging the government to pursue further studies on overseas anti-spam methods.
CSL disagreed with claims by Ofta that the level of junk mail sent through text or mobile multimedia messages was on the rise.
'Whilst the consultation paper presents many statistics relating to unsolicited messages sent via fax or e-mail, there is a complete lack of statistics provided about unsolicited messages sent by SMS and MMS,' CSL said.
Peoples said it had received just 17 complaints about unsolicited messages between October last year and September.
Ofta received about 40 submissions to its consultation paper from private firms, industry associations and individuals.
To date, legislation against spam has either been introduced or is planned in Australia, the mainland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and European Union countries.
