Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005)RegulationsICASA Code of Conduct for Premium Rated Services Regulations6. General provisions of premium rated services |
| (1) | Premium rated services provided by means of a voice call shall have a clear announcement on the cost of the service per minute/per call at the beginning of the call. |
| (2) | The announcement in terms of subregulation (1), will be made by the licensee from which the call originates, and shall not be more than ten (10) seconds in duration, and shall comply with the following format: "Call billed at X rand per minute/or per call". |
| (3) | In case a premium rated service is provided by means of a Short Messaging Service/Multimedia Messaging Service (SMS/MMS) communication, or through an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), end-users' shall be sent a notification informing them of the cost and the terms and condition associated with the service upon initiation of the service. |
| (4) | Subscription premium rated services shall be offered subject to a "double opt-in" process. |
| (5) | The SMS subscription confirmation message as contained in the double opt-in process shall include: |
| (a) | Confirmation that the end-user has been subscribed to the service; |
| (b) | The description and name of the service concerned; |
| (c) | Contact details of the premium rate service provider; |
| (d) | All costs levied against the end-user for using the service; and |
| (e) | Details of how to unsubscribe and terminate communication from the service. |
| (6) | The contact number that a consumer is required to respond to the above confirmation SMS shall not be a premium rated number. |
| (7) | Consumers of premium rated services offered by means of SMS/MMS communication shall be given an option to opt-out of the service, by which they would have sent an SMS with the word STOP to the number or code provided by the premium rated service provider, effectively terminating communication and receipt of the said service. |
| (8) | The number of code that a consumer of a premium rated service must send and SMS to terminate communication and receipt of the said service, must not be a premium rated number of code as classified by the Numbering Plan Regulations. |
| (9) | Prior to the provision of a premium rated service to any end-user, the end-user shall be advised on the costs, terms and conditions to which the service is provided. |
| (10) | The costs for premium rated services shall be clearly conveyed to end-users and potential end-users to enable them to make informed decisions before the use of these services. |
| (11) | Premium rated services provided by means of a voice call shall not have a false ringing sound (including no sound at all) at the beginning of the call which might cause an end-user to believe that the call has not yet started. |
| (12) | Premium rated services provided by means of a voice call shall not be intentionally prolonged or delayed for the purposes of extracting additional revenue from end-users. |
| (13) | A premium rated service shall not: |
| (a) | incite violence or constitute hate speech; |
| (b) | contain defamatory statements; |
| (c) | cause conflicts among persons, groups or communities for racial, religious, political or any other reasons; |
| (d) | encourage the use of materials that are dangerous to an end-user's health; and |
| (e) | encourage or incite any person to engage in dangerous practices. |
| (14) | Licensees shall avail a facility to its subscribers that will enable subscribers to block access to premium rated services by blocking out communication to and from premium rated numbers. |