Source: CCTV.com

04-01-2008 11:56

It's been nearly two weeks since China Mobile and China Unicom declared a crackdown on spam messages sent on mobile phones. And that's seeing some positive results even now.

Experts say spam messages still lack good management. And they are calling on all  relevant departments to standardize the  market as soon as possible.

Spam messages to mobile phones are usually sent via a card that allows users to send messages to hundreds of mobile phones at once. To curb the rampant spam messages, China Mobile and China Unicom have strengthened their supervision. Anyone sending more than 200 messages an hour will be shut down. The move has greatly influenced the sale of the text message cards.

One salesman said "We don't have any text message cards. Right now, it's very difficult to buy them."

In retail markets where the cards are still available for sale, the crackdown has pushed up the price of text message cards by more than 30 percent.

Another saleswoman said "Cards allowing 2000 messages will be available at the beginning of next month. Right now, we have cards allowing 1000 messages."

The information ministry has called on mobile phone operators to continue their crackdown, and to extend the current short-term measures into longer-term rules.

In mid-March, a Chinese media report found that a subsidiary of Focus Media was sending spam to people's cell phones. The coverage started a round of public complaints over mobile phone junk messages. In response, mobile phone operators decided to shut down message service ports operated by spam senders.

But experts say spam messages still lack good management. And they are calling on all relevant departments to standardize the market as soon as possible.

Editor:Xiong Qu