30.08.2017

 

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) brings to the user’s attention that higher, premium rates are charged for calls to 09xx xxx xxx numbers. These numbers offers value-added content services – such as entertainment, games, contests or general information. These calls are not covered by subscriptions or add-ons and will be charged separately.

For example, some job announcements display contact numbers of the 09xx xxx xxx format for further information on the respective job opportunity, and a 15-minute call to such a number may cost as much as 150 RON.

Using Premium Rate Numbers

In order to avoid unexpected costs, abuse or fraud related to the use of Premiun Rate services, ANCOM imposed a series of obligations on the providers. Thus, the users must receive clear information on the tariffs and the charging method corresponding to such calls each time they are  informed about the number to a Premium Rate service (prior to service provision), as well as at the moment of service initiation.

Thus, for value-added services accessed by voice calls to 09xx xxx xxx numbers, the users will listen – at the call initiation, before the content delivery - a welcome message with information on the applicable tariff, on the charging method (per-call or per-minute), as well as on the minimum charging unit, as applicable. Welcome messages are usually provided free of charge, and - where they are charged - the corresponding charges cannot exceed the tariffs for domestic calls on the respective users’ tariff plans.

Moreover, the details regarding consumption of Premium Rate services offered by means of 09xx xxx xxx numbers, including the corresponding charges, must be specified in the itemized bill issued by the operator upon a user’s request.

What, how and where to complain

If during the consumption of Premium Rate services, the users do not receive the items of information regulated by ANCOM by Decision no. 1131/2014 on adopting the Code of Conduct for using internal national short numbers and SMS/MMS short codes, or if mobile telephony operators or content providers fail to publish such information on their websites, according to Decision no. 158/2015 on the obligations of informing the end-users, the users may submit a complaint to ANCOM, following the steps presented here.

The users may find further details related to accessing and the corresponding charges of Premium Rate services in the InfoCenter section on ANCOM’s website.