A RECENT spate of complaints by mobile phone users has again thrown premium service providers of value-added services into the spotlight.

So far, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) has received 216 complaints this year against third-party service providers, mainly about wrongful billing. Last year, there were 186 complaints.

Sybase 365 is the latest service provider to come under scrutiny, with 59 complaints against it this year from just eight last year. Many users said the terms and conditions of its services were too small to be read in its advertisements in various media.

Sybase has already been fined a total of $8,000 and given a warning this year by the Infocomm Development Authority. The company was punished on separate occasions for failing to fully disclose the terms and conditions of its services in its advertisements, and for charging for unsolicited services.

In 2006, when it was known as Mobile 365, it was also fined $20,000 for failing to fully disclose the terms and conditions of an SMS football quiz.

Sybase 365's marketing director for Asia Ms Jean Loh, said the company is an SMS aggregator, or a 'pipe' for content providers to send SMSes to subscribers globally. While it does not determine the content of ads, it is required by the authorities to ensure that the ads adhere to local requirements.

'We are only made aware of possible discrepancies in the ads when complaints come in. We monitor based on the number of complaints,' said Ms Loh, who added that content providers sometimes continually alter the ads without informing Sybase.

The company said it is now re-evaluating its procedures in vetting advertisements.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.