The Regulator of Premium Rate Telecommunications Services’ Annual Report covering the activities of the Premium Rate industry for the year ended 31st March, 2007, is published today.

The market for Premium Rate Services appears to have stabilised with revenues of €94 million very much in line with last year’s figures. Approximately two thirds of this amount was spent on Premium SMS with the remainder spent on fixed line calls. A growing trend is the use of fixed line Premium Rate Numbers to make international calls.

Earlier this year an explanatory information leaflet on how to deal with unwanted text messages was circulated to advice centres and other agencies dealing with the public. In late summer, a successful STOP information campaign containing a simple message on how to unsubscribe from Subscription Services was launched on both television and radio stations. Heightening awareness of Subscription Services and how they operate is an important issue for RegTel.

The Report highlights the following:

	Approximately 30,000 calls from the public were received in the first year of operation of the RegTel Call Centre of which 80% were seeking help with Subscription Services.
	A total of 2,111 complaints were received, 94% of which were related to Subscription Services.
	Overall, 112 million fixed line and SMS Premium Rate calls were made to a variety of services, including ringtones, logos/wallpapers, competitions, information, tarot & horoscope services.

Complaints about Subscription Services included:

	Consumers denying they subscribed to Subscription Services
	Issues around the STOP Command not working correctly
	Children's subscription issues

"Making people aware of how Subscription Services operate, and how to unsubscribe from unwanted services is a priority for RegTel" said Mr Breen. The Code of Practice for the industry is currently being revised and updated to provide greater consumer protection and is expected to be published before the end of the year.

For further information:
Regulator: Pat Breen 01-6767025
Media Relations Advisor: Kieran Fagan, 087-2871635/01-2822845.
RegTel website: www.regtel.ie