Subscribers may silence 'Sexy Susan' phone lines

SEXY Susan stories on Hongkong Telecom's information line may only be available to subscribers who request them under proposals by the telecommunications watchdog.

The information lines - covering everything from horse-racing tips to cooking advice, fortune telling and the adult lines - are available to everyone with an International Direct Dialling (IDD) facility, and charged accordingly, an Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) spokesman said.

'We are trying to change it to an opt-in method,' he said. 'The customer would have to request it.' OFTA's Complaints Advisory Committee had received numerous complaints about these lines, which people - particularly children - often called without the knowledge of the household billpayer, he said. 'The caller will just call up the line and run up huge bills,' he said.

IDD holders could choose to 'block' the adult or children's stories or the whole information-line service to avoid such problems, he said.

About 20 information-service providers exist in Hong Kong, most supplying tapes to Hongkong Telecom.

The Consumer and User Advisory Committee, comprising the Consumer Council and members of the public, had discussed the suggestion this month. The authority would talk to Hongkong Telecom and the information firms, the spokesman said.

The trouble with the opt-in method was that customers did not know the information services were useful until they used them, said Voice Information Systems executive director Brian Wilcox. His bureau provides the link between taped information and callers.