A decision from TRB sets out conditions intended to protect subscribers against abuse by telephone operators involved in advertising and games of chance.

Until today, mobile telephone users in the country have been increasingly subjected to messages from operators announcing huge sums of money or valuable items up for grasp should they play one game or the other.  If a decision by the Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) is anything to go, then, the sometimes undesired showy messages which often lure users to attempting and often losing money in due course would hence be regulated.

According to two decisions from TRB, one regulating the circulation of short message services (SMS) on lucky games and the other on promotional sales, mobile telephone operators have to scrupulously follow set out rules, failure of which they would face the law.

Concerning lucky games, the TRB decision states that tariffs to be paid for any lucky game must be visible, complete and exact and must be communicated to the consumer before he/she engages in the game. This is aimed at halting ambiguous messages like “Send ‘XXX’ to 931 and win 1 motorcycle everyday” and “Bravo! XXX vient de te sélectionner pour gagner 2.000.000 FCFA. Fait vite ! Confirme ta participation en envoyant Ok au 987, » which inundate telephone sets on daily basis.   

The games must not go beyond one month and the conditions set out from the beginning should also be respected to the letter. The decision also states that during big ceremonies (nature not stated), the games as well as undesired messages must be halted 24 hours before and after.Contrary to what many have qualified as perpetual harassment from telephone operators who send all manner of messages at any time, the TRB decision prescribes that such messages should only be done between 6 am and 10 pm and should not go beyond three messages per subscriber for a day.

Subscribers should also be given the opportunity to activate as well as deactivate the lucky games. “The code for activating and deactivating the game must be simple and cost-free,” it notes. Subscribers who continually go through the harassement can report to TRB for sanctions in line with the laws in place.

Meanwhile, for promotional sales through the phone like airtime and other products, TRB prohibits the advertising of products that will not be given to beneficiaries through the promotional sales. All the promotional offers must be submitted to TRB eight days before its launch for scrutiny vis-à-vis the rules in place. Operators are also obliged to give subscribers the possibility to activate and deactivate the offer during the period which must not exceed three months.