Indonesia Mobile Premium Content Regulation Expected to be Completed Next Month

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has predicted that regulations concerning premium content for mobiles will be completed around October 2012. According to Indonesia Finance Today, operators’ revenues from this kind of premium content, particularly ringback tones (RBT), dropped drastically since the moratorium on premium content services was issued on October 2011.

Mobile telcos are seeing their revenue from value-added services (VAS) decline since October 2011. The GM of VAS st mobile operator XL Axiata, Revie Sylviana, said to Okezone that 60 percent of VAS revenue came from such mobile content services. It keeps dropping by 29 percent these days.

The new regulations were sparked by continual public outcry over unwanted and spammy services that deduct credit from users with pre-paid mobile accounts. On October 2011, the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BRTI) reported 9,638 complaints received by the regulatory body, of which 715 were related to deducted phone credit or spam.

Yusuf Hasnoputro, an official at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce said to The Jakarta Globe that the industry consists of about 400 content provider companies that employ about 2,000 people and generate around Rp 4 trillion ($450 million) in revenue annually from more than 15 million customers. On December 2011, BRTI listed 194 premium content providers under their supervision.

Last Thursday, on September 6, 2012, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology held a meeting to discuss the revision of the law with BRTI, representatives of all mobile carriers, associations of content providers, and other stakeholders.

Head of PR at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Gatot S. Dewa Broto, said in the interview that the regulation should come into force in October.

We are in the finalization process to complete the regulation. Before this revision is completed, content providers still have to obey the ‘Regulation of the Minister of Communication and Information Technology No. 1 Year 2009’ and the rules from BRTI No 177/2011. After finalization, we still need to have discussions.

Previously, telcos and other mobile content providers dodged the issue by saying that these services required activation and the full consent of consumers. But most of the time, consumers did not realize that they were agreeing to such a premium service that deducted amounts regularly from their pre-paid credit. Even though it has taken so long to discuss and finalize this solution, this is a matter of consumer protection that needs to be done correctly. Consumers are now aware that extra mobile services can take their credit every month. They’ll hopefully be more vigilant in signing up for them in future.