Telstra cancels plans to push ads to subscribers

MELBOURNE, Australia—Australian wireless carrier Telstra Corp. quickly backtracked on a plan to push advertisements to its subscribers after Australia’s communications minister harshly criticized the move.
Telstra recently sent its MobileNet subscribers a message advertising a new service. Customers were charged 12 cents to open the message, a ploy that raised the ire of the country’s Communications Minister Richard Alston.
“Charging people for accessing Telstra promotional material is simply not acceptable,” Alston told Reuters. “To impose a service on somebody and then charge them for accessing it is push technology.”
A day after Alston made his comments, Telstra issued an apology and said it would refund the cost of opening the message, regardless of whether customers had done so.
“Telstra apologizes for any inconvenience caused to our customers,” said Rick Wakeham, the company’s OnAir director of products.
However, Telstra said it was important to explain the new features, and “essential for customers to understand in their ongoing use of the service.”