Rogue WASPs, or Wireless Application Service Providers, are not a new entrant on the South African cellular scene.<\/p>\n
MyBroadband has received complaints about mysteriously vanishing airtime<\/a> from as early as 2008, which Vodacom later confirmed was due to WASPs<\/a> operating in contravention of the WASPA Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n There have been a number of complaints recently from customers claiming that they’ve never subscribed to a mobile VAS (Value Added Service) and yet find themselves being billed by T-mobile SA.<\/p>\n According to one affected customer, the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) said that problems with database migration are to blame for T-mobile’s erroneous billing.<\/p>\n “We have been informed by T-mobile SA that since their server transfer from Cointel (Vodacom Service Provider) they have had problems due to two of their databases merging together,” said a WASPA employee.<\/p>\n According to the Cointel website, the company hasn’t existed since 2007 when it was acquired by Vodacom and merged into Vodacom’s internal WASP division. Richard Boorman, a spokesperson for Vodacom, confirmed that T-mobile SA’s only remaining link to Vodacom is a WASP agreement.<\/p>\n The WASPA employee added that T-mobile SA was having “endless problems” splitting the two databases. “One is a bulk SMS database and the is a subscription database. They are having endless problems splitting the two. That is why they offer a refund to every one that requests a refund.”<\/p>\n In this particular customer’s case a refund didn’t seem to be forthcoming. “Concerning refunds, it falls out of our jurisdiction. We can however follow up for consumers about refunds,” said the WASPA employee.<\/p>\n When the customer queried the status of their refund on a second occasion, WASPA reiterated the request to have the incorrectly billed amounts refunded, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.<\/p>\n The custodian of the customer’s bill, MTN Service Provider, wasn’t too helpful either, according to the customer. Apparently MTNSP’s customer service department initially declined to assist and was unable to point the customer in the right direction.<\/p>\n Only after the customer specifically asked for the WASP’s details in order to report them to WASPA were they assisted.<\/p>\n Recourse for customers, punishment for rogue WASPs<\/strong><\/p>\n This does beg the question of how the average consumer would know what to ask for and who to give the information to.<\/p>\n It would also seem as if even those who know exactly what information to get and who to provide it to can’t get their money back either.<\/p>\n Customers are demanding to know why WASPs are still afforded access to their cellular bills without the cellular service providers themselves being held responsible for the billing.<\/p>\n MTN didn’t comment by the time of publication, but did request the number of the complainant in order to conduct an investigation.<\/p>\n Boorman explained that all WASPs making use of Vodacom’s network are contractually bound to adhere to the WASPA Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n The sanction for non-compliance is disconnection from Vodacom’s network, Boorman said.<\/p>\n The Code of Conduct requires WASPs to adhere to industry rules that will ensure that customers are informed about mobile content services, said Boorman. These include:<\/p>\n Vodacom says they received complaints about the Mobbee service from T-mobile SA customers in September and subsequently suspended the service.<\/p>\n Due to being allegedly fraudulently billed by T-mobile SA, a customer asked WASPA whether the WASP would be investigated and punished.<\/p>\n “Concerning them being illegal operators, we are looking into it,” WASPA said.<\/p>\n WASPA were unable to provide further comment by the time of publication but MyBroadband has been informed to expect some sort of feedback soon.<\/p>\n\n