THOSE using audiotext services may be told in advance how much they will be charged to call an audiotext service telephone number. The Slovak Parliament on November 6 advanced a draft revision to the law on electronic communications, introducing the duty. The revision was elaborated by the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) party, the TASR newswire reported.
“People dial such a number and make a call without knowing how much they will pay for it,” explained MP Jozef Viskupič, who presented the draft revision. “After the change [to the law] operators will be obliged to tell the caller, before connecting him or her, that this is a paid service and what the price is for each minute of the call.”
Audiotext services are information or other services for which a fee is charged on a per-call or per-minute basis, or some combination of the two, by a provider that leases telephone lines from a telephone utility.
The price for such calls ranges between €0.40 and €3.00 per minute in Slovakia. Audiotext services provide, for example, information about traffic or allow people to enter competitions.
