SingTel subscribers are not alone in facing bills for calls that are not answered. M1 users face the same issue, albeit in a different form.

Many M1 subscribers are given a 'free' voice mail facility where unanswered calls can be diverted to the voice mail.

What most do not know is that these calls are charged at prevailing mobile airtime rates, whether or not the other party records a message. If a party records a long message, every minute is billed.

This system is open to abuse as a saboteur can leave 1,000 minutes of voice mail messages on an M1 subscriber's voice mail system and open him to a hefty month-end bill.

So M1 users, if you do not want to be charged, consider disconnecting this so-called 'free' value-added service.

Peter Lo