1. What are audiotext services?
Audiotext services are supported in the telephone service (fixed and mobile), their specific content and nature distinguishing them from the latter.
2. How is access gained to audiotext services?
Companies that offer networks and services that support rendering of audiotext services will have to ensure that access to these services is barred, as a rule and with no charge whatsoever, being activated, generally and selectively, after request in writing put forward by the respective users.
Exceptions to this rule are televote audiotext services (to which corresponds code 607), which access is automatically provided to the user.
Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Law, which came into force on 11 February 2004, failure to comply with the call barring obligation is deemed to be penalty, punished with an administrative fine.
3. What means can be used to accede to audiotext services?
As long as the requirements described in the previous number are met, access to audiotext services may be obtained via a fixed telephone, a mobile telephone or a personal computer (PC). In this last case the connection is made via the subscriber's fixed telephone access also supporting access to the Internet, although the connection to the audiotext number is made via the PC.
Communications may sometimes be established through the PC and modem without the knowledge of the user. This may occur through the installation by download of certain intrusive Trojan horse programmes (which may also be resident in armed email attachments) that originate the Internet disconnection and the connection to audiotext service provider sites, with the cost of communication being equal to the price of these services.
Thus a prior Internet connection is not required for access to this type of services because, after the site is accessed for the first time and downloaded to the PC, the saved programme makes the connection directly. Disconnecting from the Internet is not enough to avoid this kind of communication via the modem, the modem itself must be disconnected.
4. Who can exercise this activity?
Pursuit of the activity of audiotext service provider is subject to registration with the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM). Registration can be made for this purpose by natural person registered as sole traders, and legally constituted companies.
5. What is necessary to commence trading?
Before commencement of trading, the registered entities must inform ANACOM of the services that they propose to offer, including the following elements: a declaration expressly drawn up for the purpose containing a detailed description of the service to be provided so that the respective access code can be allocated; a technical plan detailing the equipment to be used; an indication of the provider of support services. The provision of the service may only commence 20 working days after receipt by the ANACOM of the relevant information.
6. What are the obligations of audiotext service providers?
Audiotext service providers are subject to various obligations:
- to respect the terms, conditions and restrictions inherent in the respective access code;
- to comply with applicable legislation in respect of advertising, copyright and related rights, consumer protection, protection of personal data, industrial property, and legislation in respect of gambling activities;
- to use only equipment that has been approved by the competent entity;
- to allow the ANACOM to verify equipment and to make information available for statistical purposes, providing easy access to the respective premises and documentation.
7. What are the access codes and the rules for their use?
ANACOM has defined 5 access codes for audiotext-services that correspond to the following activities:
- 601 - general services (all services without a specific access code, including the designated chat lines);
- 607 - televote services;
- 608 - sales services (sales, marketing, collection of non-charity funds, recording and dissemination of commercial messages, etc);
- 646 - contest and entertainment services (including dissemination of respective results);
- 648 - erotic services (all services of an erotic or sexual nature).
The existence of a specific access code for services declared to have erotic or sexual content results directly from the law.
ICP shall allocate audiotext service providers with different access codes based on the nature and content of the service provided, in accordance with the detailed description presented by the respective provider.
Audiotext service providers shall respect the restrictions inherent in their respective license.
Providers shall also furnish users with information at the moment they connect to the service in the form of a voice message, explaining the nature of the service, and whether or not the service is only for adults. This message may be recorded, will last for 10 seconds, will include information on the price to be charged for the call, and this 10-second message will be charged at the rates of the telecommunications service that carries it (and not at the price of the relevant audiotext service).
8. Who controls audiotext service providers in terms of the correspondence between the activity developed and the access code that has been assigned?
ANACOM is responsible for verifying that the services provided are in accordance with the access codes allocated. Supervision of the provision of audiotext services is also the responsibility of entities, which are endowed with powers in the scope of the application of the Advertising and Copyright and Related Rights Codes, applicable consumer protection and personal data legislation.
9. What are the rules governing prices?
Audiotext service providers are free to set the prices for the services that they provide. Nonetheless, the price indication for audiotext services shall, depending on the service, mention the following:
- the cost per minute;
- the cost of each fifteen-second period, solely for services with a maximum duration of one minute and provided that the provider's equipment automatically terminates the call once this period has elapsed;
- the cost of the call, for all services with fixed call costs, regardless of its duration.
Simultaneously, audiotext service providers must guarantee users, at the moment that they access the service with information, in the form of a voice message that explicitly defines the charge for the call. This message is the same as those informing users about the nature of the service in question.
The services should also contain a sound signal for every minute of communication.
10. What happens when irregularities are discovered?
In cases of misuse of the allocated access code or in the absence of a spoken message giving information on the price and nature of the service, the ANACOM may suspend use of this access code for a maximum of 2 years or cancel its registration.
Prior to suspension or cancellation, the ANACOM shall inform the relevant audiotext services provider of the measures necessary to correct the situation, setting a deadline of not more than 10 days for the provider to respond.
If the measures are not put into effect within the deadline, the ANACOM may suspend use of the code or cancel the registration. Suspension of the use of the access code on the part of the audiotext service provider or the cancellation of its registration may be made public by the ANACOM and shall be communicated to the support service provider.
On the other hand, it is forbidden to register or allocate of new access codes to audiotext service providers for which use of the respective access code has been suspended, or whose registration has been cancelled.
11. Has the ANACOM detected any irregularities?
Besides being available in the telephone service (fixed and mobile), audiotext services can be announced on the Internet. This recourse, which has been a factor used in divulging these services, is also where certain situations concerning non-compliance with the legislation applicable have been discovered. Some audiotext operators have advertised on the Internet and conditioning access to their services through the prior download and automatic installation of a utility that provides the user with access to audiotext services without the user's knowledge of this occurrence. This was the case of a company, which, along with others, used the site "Portugal Móvel" and which resulted in the company having its registration revoked.
There are other companies which although their registrations have not been revoked, have suffered temporary penalties - suspension or inhibition to use the respective registrations during limited periods of time - imposed by the ANACOM as a result of the regular inspections carried out by this institute. These have been treated differently because they had been carrying out other forms of equally illegal activity.
12. Who bills and collects payment for these services?
The billing and collection of payment of the amounts corresponding to the provision of audiotext services may be carried out by the respective provider, as well as by the support telecommunications service provider. In the latter case, the amounts inherent to the provision of audiotext services should be duly autonomised.
The choice of either of these solutions is not made by the audiotext services client, but is defined within the terms of the contract in force between these two types of providers - the audiotext services provider and the support service provider.
13. Does non-payment of the billed amount for audiotext services imply suspension of the support service?
Pursuant to the Electronic Communications Law, suspension to provide a telephone service to the public should be limited to the service regarding which payment was not made. Therefore, the provision of a telephone service cannot be suspended as a result of failure to pay audiotext services, even if included in the same invoice, provided that a claim is submitted on time to the support service provider and paid the corresponding telephone service. In fact, the subscriber is entitled to pay and get acquittal of only part of the amounts contained in an invoice.
However, this procedure does not exclude audiotext providers from having recourse to judicial or extra-judicial bodies to claim payment for audiotext services provided, in which case users must put the necessary defence mechanisms in motion.
14. In summary, what rights do citizens have in relation to whether or not to use audiotext services?
1. The existence of specific access codes, that are directly associated to clearly identified activities that contributes towards a conscious choice by users.
2. An obligatory voice message that must start at the moment that the user accesses the service, indicating the nature of the service, and whether or not it is destined for adults only.
3. The conformity of the services provided with the assigned access codes is supervised, as are the penalties that apply in the event of non-conformity. This supervision discourages illicit practises.
4. Although prices can be set freely, they are governed by clear principles concerning the manner in which prices may be presented, including the obligation to inform the user of the respective conditions within the same obligatory voice message.
5. Non-payment of the amounts associated to the use of audiotext services does not imply suspension of the support telephone service.
6. Support service providers should, as a rule and at no charge whatsoever, block access to audiotext services, which can only be activated, generically or selectively, after request in writing of the respective users. Exceptions to this rule are the televote audiotext services (code 607), to which access is provided automatically.
