Q Will interim measure curb junk phone calls?
If you are an international business professional with a Hong Kong mobile phone number, you will be unhappy when your bill arrives at the end of the month.
For the past two years, while in Australia, Southeast Asia and the mainland, I have been receiving sales calls and poll calls at least twice a day.
Each month my bill has included more than $600 for international roaming alone. While $600 is a relatively small amount, it is totally unsolicited and the calls are an absolute nuisance, especially when you are doing something important. I have complained but the mobile companies always insist it is not their fault, saying that unless the government came up with stronger legislation, they could not do anything.
I have also tried changing mobile carriers and getting new numbers but the junk calls eventually catch up with the new mobile number.
The Office of the Telecommunication Authority must immediately set up the harshest regulations to control all these calls. One of the most urgent needs is to ask mobile companies to stop leasing numbers to companies that use these numbers to generate sales.
