While mobile phone messages have become one of the most popular
means of communications in present-day China, the short message
service has also become a focus of consumer complaints.
Wang Yong, a China Unicom subscriber in Lanzhou City of
northwestern Gansu Province, was annoyed with the volume of
commercial text messages forced on him almost daily.
"I receive as many as 10 commercials, including senseless
invitations for romantic love affairs, each day," Wang
complained.
A survey of select mobile phone users indicated that 80 percent
disliked such messages, 10 percent were indifferent, and only eight
percent believed they provided useful information.
Wang felt that commercial messages constitute harassment to a
certain extent.
"If I don't like a certain TV advertisement, I can simply turn
it off; if I don't like newspaper advertisements, I can just ignore
them. But in this case, you have to spend time for each and every
ad that is useless to you," Wang said.
However, according to operators, it is totally within the law to
send commercial messages to subscribers.
Qi Wenbin, an official with the Gansu branch of China Mobile,
said the messages are either sent by mobile phone agents or
Internet operators. Although large in numbers and jumbled in
content, they are free.
Tian Jingfeng, an official with the Gansu branch of China
Unicom, said that no single stipulation in any law forbids
operators from sending ads to subscribers.
But consumers like Wang are backed by the Gansu provincial
consumers' association. Cheng Zhigang, an official of the
association, said such messages infringed upon the rights and
interests of consumers since they trampled the basic business
principle of "freewill" on the consumers' side.
(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2003)