Ofcom publish damning response to PhonePayPlus CoP consultation

[silver]

Ofcom (the Office of Communication) is the body ultimately responsible for regulating the premium rate industry - the "industry" which gave us Richard-and-Judy-Gate. Ofcom has many responsibilities and it delegates the regulation of Premium Rate Services (PRS) to a body called PayPhonePlus (formerly "ICSTIS": Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services).

Following the widely publicized TV based premium rate scandals, Ofcom has begun to take a closer interest in PhonePayPlus's actions (and failures to act) and has, as part of this new initiative, just held a consultation on PhonePayPlus's new ("11th Edition") Code of Practice (CoP) - the document which is supposed to govern the behaviour of PRS firms.

Five responses to this consultation (four industry bodies and one individual member of the public) have just been published on the Ofcom site . The response submitted by amateur PRS expert Mike Ward, presents a damning indictment of the current state of PRS regulation and calls for a number of improvements to the PhonePayPlus CoP.

The exact split of responsibilities between Ofcom and PhonePayPlus is still evolving and is still an area of dispute (see for example http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi...oU_Aug2005.pdf and http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/cond...lframework.pdf ).

Post below is the text from the Ofcom site submitted by Mike Ward, hopefully someone at Ofcom is listening...