WASHINGTON-Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), responding to angry constituents hit with unsolicited wireless junk mail, plans shortly to introduce legislation to ban mobile-phone spam.
“He saw this as the next wave and wanted to nip it in the bud,” said Steve Maviglio, press secretary for Holt.
The preparation of the Holt mobile-phone spamming bill comes as the House readies to vote-possibly as soon as this week-on legislation penned by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to curb unsolicited commercial e-mail. The measure, which apparently does not cover mobile-phone spam, includes fines up to $50,000 for violations.
Holt was a cosponsor of a similar bill that was merged into the Wilson legislation.
Maviglio said Holt, a member of the House Internet Caucus and the Congressional Privacy Caucus, got involved when the congressman’s office started getting calls a few months ago from AT&T Wireless Services Inc. customers who were irate about being alerted on their mobile phones-via short messaging service-by advertisements.
AT&T Wireless said it does not have a business relationship with Plugout.com Inc., a Fort Lee, N.J., online distributor of wireless accessories.
About 5,000 AT&T Wireless subscribers got spammed on their mobile phones.
“We have put protective measures in place,” said Ken Woo, an AT&T Wireless spokesman. I don’t know how they got the block of numbers … This is something we’re not interested in allowing.”
Plugout.com could not be reached for comment. In April, Holt wrote to Rudy Temiz, chief executive officer of Plugout.com, to urge him to cease mobile-phone spamming. “You’re new marketing technique may be innovative, but it is an invasion of privacy of cell-phone users. It is irritating, it is annoying, it may be costly to cell-phone users, and it is wrong,” Holt wrote.
AT&T Wireless agrees in principle with Holt’s draft bill to forbid mobile-phone spam, according to Woo.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS, two other major carriers that offer wireless Internet, did not return calls for comment.
While AT&T Wireless said it has zero tolerance for mobile-phone spamming, it is not clear whether dot-coms-the kind that are increasingly partnering with wireless carriers-share the same view.
Plugout.com’s Temiz was quoted in a Wired.com article last Wednesday as saying, “Definitely in the near future, carriers will end up selling that type of advertising and that will drop rates of cellular-phone users. I don’t think anyone minds getting their rates dropped.”
Temiz was referring to predictions that wireless carriers might one day give away voice for free, a strategy that would have voice service subsidized through advertising-supported Internet data services.
However, it is far from clear what business models will emerge for the wireless Internet. Indeed, there are recent signs that the many millions of dollars spent on online advertising to date may not be paying off for e-tailers.
The spam issue raises a number of fundamental issues for wireless operators as they make the uncertain foray into wireless Internet. First, will data become the powerful driver of the mobile-phone business such that voice can be unloaded for free? Opinions differ.
Wireless executives are covering their bets by spending billions of dollars for radio spectrum and construction of broadband, third-generation wireless networks.
On the another level, the spam problem raises the prickly issue of the uneasy relationship between wireless carriers and dot-coms in the Digital Age. Carriers are loath to surrender their customers to America Online, Yahoo! and other Internet giants.
But if wireless carriers are to give subscribers full, unfettered access to the Internet-the kind of access users enjoy today on desktop computers-some loosening of control over wireless subscribers may be necessary.
The transition from a voice-based business to a data-based business also creates a whole new set of regulatory issues-like privacy-for wireless carriers.
Instead of having to worry just about the Federal Communications Commission as the agency focuses increasingly on consumer complaints, mobile-phone firms also will have the Federal Trade Commission looking over their shoulders.
