Mobile spam on the rise

The report was put together by a consortium representing industry and academia, was released today by the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Intrado subsidiary BMD wireless.

While junk mail is a well-known problem in the Internet and e-mail world, mobile spam will increasingly infect the mobile world, the study concluded.

Eight in ten (80%) mobile phone users surveyed have received unsolicited messages and are more likely to change their operator than their mobile number to fight the problem.

The study found that both consumers and businesses see wireless operator self-regulation as the most important action against unsolicited mobile messages or spam.

Most complaints about mobile spam were directed toward the network operator. In addition, consumers perceived mobile marketing messages from mobile operators as spam.

Meanwhile, both consumers and mobile operators expect mobile spam to become more of a problem in the future. 83% of telecommunications industry respondents perceive mobile spam to be a critical issue today or within the next 1-2 years.

Tom Phillips, government and regulatory affairs officer at the GSM Association said: "Whilst there is no single solution to the mobile spam problem, there are a number of key components to any real solution, including identifying the spammers by rejecting anonymous or spoofed access and making them pay through clear and suitable charging mechanisms."

The study examined differences in the perception of mobile spam issues between consumers and mobile network operators and assessed how well the problem is being managed.

Surveys were carried out with 1,659 consumers and 154 mobile service company professionals. Conducted in November and December 2004, the study included results from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the United States, Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia.

For more details of the study “Insights into Mobile Spam, World’s First Collaborative Empirical Study” "click here":http://www.mobilespam.org.