{"id":549596,"date":"2006-07-21T07:19:25","date_gmt":"2006-07-21T07:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/549596-code-is-the-consumer-s-ally.html"},"modified":"2006-07-21T07:19:25","modified_gmt":"2006-07-21T07:19:25","slug":"code-is-the-consumer-s-ally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/549596-code-is-the-consumer-s-ally.html","title":{"rendered":"CODE IS THE CONSUMER\u2019S ALLY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"2\">Industry body the Wireless Application Service Providers\u2019 Association (Waspa), has developed a code of conduct in an effort to minimise abusive trade practices. Network operators insist that content providers obey the code. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">The code stops content providers from, for example, subscribing consumers to premium-rated services without their knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">This sort of abuse has led to higher churn among prepaid cellphone users, who, instead of trying to unsubscribe to a service they don\u2019t want, simply discard their Sim cards and switch networks. This is a big concern for the network operators, especially in light of the introduction in September of mobile number portability, which will enable consumers to switch networks without losing their numbers. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Germany\u2019s Jamster has been accused of unethical practices and has come under fire in Europe for making it difficult for people to unsubscribe from subscription services. There is also a complaint pending against Jamster in SA, says Waspa chairman Leon Perlman <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Waspa has eight adjudicators \u2014 all specialist lawyers \u2014 who consider complaints in terms of the code. There\u2019s also an appeals panel. Waspa is empowered to impose fines, and has done so. It can also suspend services and insist that changes are made to advertising. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">INet-Bridge ||\u00a0 <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php?t=48606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0000ff\" size=\"2\">Discuss this article<\/font><\/a><font size=\"2\"> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><\/font><\/p>\n<p \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile content providers in SA have to abide by strict rules that have been set down to protect consumers from bad business practices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}