House to summon communication minister, operators over SMS complaints

Commission I of the House of Representatives plans to summon Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring and all cellular phone operators over mounting complaints from cellular phone users whose phone credits has unknowingly been deducted by through short text messages (SMS) and other schemes offering various prizes and premium services.

"We will summon the communication and information technology minister and phone operators next Monday or Tuesday. This [problem] has been brought to the attention for House Commission I," Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said Wednesday.

The commission overseas technology issues.

He added that sending of premium content without the consent or registration from phone users had put cellular phone users at a loss, which the government and operators had to be accountable for.

"The operators can block those service numbers. The government, in this case the Communication and Information Technology Ministry, has to hand down strict sanctions to operators who brazenly allow this to go on," he added, as reported by tribunnews.com.