SMS services are popular with children and youths, especially for ordering ringtones or games for mobile phones. Consumer protection organisations such as Internet Ombudsmann or Arbeiterkammer have recorded many cases of young people.
Even though there are legal regulations defining appropriate advertising and information as well as correct procedures to unsubscribe (sending a “stop word”) from Premium SMS services, in some cases cancellation does not work.
Good news if you’d like to block text messages, copy them to another mobile or the like. Well, it’s good news if you’re a Maxis Malaysia customer .Malaysian operator Maxis has ordered an SMS service platform from Acision which will enable its subscribers to block unsolicited SMS, or SMS spam, set up automatic replies and automatically copy messages to another mobile number from their handset.

The Acision’s Message Plus platform has allowed Maxis to be the first mobile operator globally to enable a customer-activated Anti-Spam solution which blocks out local spam messages. Customers can now, at their own, personalize and block of spam SMS from reaching their mobile phones.

This is nothing revolutionary as its a simple technology that has the intelligence to block un-wanted junk SMS just like how our desktop and online email apps block our junk emails. This is a solution that all operators will worldwide should be adopting as it provides great privacy and control to the mobile users. Especially in China where users had been troubled with years and years of spammed SMS, it’s high time that China Mobile and China Unicom should consider taking this approach. Beyond preventing un-wanted SMS, i think the service will also help to differentiate the service level between operators. The service is free and works with both prepaid and regular mobile phones. The number of involved mobile service operators will be constantly extended.