China's Ministry of Information Industry has issued a letter to each telecom operator around the country, requiring them to investigate the illegal behaviors of forty service providers whose respective services have been the target of consumer complaints.
MII is asking the telecom companies to find out the quantity of illegal short messages sent by those mobile value-added service providers and the users affected, as well as the amount of fees involved. MII requires that these MVAS companies be punished according to the degrees of their violations of the regulations.
In the fourth quarter of 2006, MII received 5659 complaints from telecom users, of which 870 were about communication quality, an increase of 10.5% over that of the previous quarter; 2161 were about service quality, up 16.9%; and 2623 were about charging and costs, rising 8.9%.
MII's actions at this moment are meant to create a good environment for SMS consumption during the upcoming Spring Festival. China's holidays usually see a peak use of SMS and mobile activity.