Ovum On: Wireless spam

Japanese operators have been trying to crack down on wireless spam, something that will increasingly become an important issue for wireless operators around the world. Nikki Murrell, a WirelessInternet@Ovum analyst and member of Ovum's Asia-Pacific analyst team, explores this major threat to wireless services.

Unsolicited mail (whether it be hard copy or electronic mail) is a major inconvenience for users and is harmful to their experience of these mail services. It has also meant that many attempts to reach consumers through either direct mail or email-based advertising are losing effectiveness, due to consumer fatigue.

The wireless platform is emerging as the next battleground for mailers trying to capture users' attention. While there are many legitimate wireless marketing efforts, if measures are not taken to protect wireless users, they will also fall foul of spammers.

Legitimate wireless marketing efforts are built on a clear framework of user opt-in to receive information or promotions, protection of personal data, an easy ability to opt-out, a value-add approach that ensures quality rather than quantity.

Spam falls outside this framework and is defined by Ovum as push messaging that is sent without a consumer's prior consent. Push messaging can include audio, SMS, email, MMS, cell broadcast, picture messaging, surveys and any other pushed advertisements or content.

We have identified three sub-categories related to the nature of the spammer.

'True spammers' generally operate outside the remit of data protection legislation and respect neither an opt-in nor opt-out approach. They disguise their identity and use techniques to make them hard to find. They use false addresses, relay messages through 'open relay' email servers (many of which are located off-shore) and generally make it difficult to find a person or organisation that could be held accountable.

'Malicious spammers' aim to spread viruses through electronic communication channels. Malicious spammers will be a growing threat to the mobile market as devices become more technologically complicated.

'Over-eager misusers' are legitimate companies that wish to use the wireless platform as a channel over which to communicate with their customer base. They are accountable to local laws and are generally willing to participate in industry groups to further the development of wireless marketing as a whole.

These companies become spammers when they abuse a consumer's agreement to receive wireless marketing messages and send an inappropriate number of messages, which become a nuisance to the user.

In the context of wireless services, the concept of unsolicited mail or messages is extremely threatening. Users are relatively tolerant of flyers and unsolicited promotions in their post and letters, and have learnt to live with (that is, delete) the multitude of spam emails in their PC inbox (often as a trade-off for free services).

However, the mobile phone is an altogether different messaging platform, in several respects. It is a more personal communications tool. People like to have control over who can reach them using their mobile. In this context, unsolicited calls/messages are particularly invasive.

The introduction of location-based technologies further increases the need to protect users' privacy. In countries where networks operate under the 'called party pays' model, users may be charged for receiving unsolicited mail.

Also, as wireless devices become more complicated and multifunctional (combined phone, cameras, MP3 player and so on), protection from viruses that are spread by spam will become even more critical.

SMS is simple to use and, as the address is usually the same as the phone number, it is very easy to generate random mailing lists. This makes it an attractive platform for potential wireless spammers. Limited storage on handsets means that if an inbox is full of spam, users risk missing legitimate messages.

There is no immediate 'catch all' solution to wireless spam. There are some arguments that legislation relating to wireless spam may cause problems for legitimate wireless marketers, so it is in the best interests of the wireless marketing industry as a whole to draw a clear line between legitimate wireless marketing and spam.

The use of a range of technical measures will allow operators to experiment to find the most effective solution, which will most likely involve a combination of approaches.

The key is for the industry - particularly operators - to collaborate in spam prevention proactively. If operators ignore the issue, they risk user backlash, churn and a tainted view of mobile data offerings.

Another factor is providing effective consumer education on how users can help themselves. This will be vital in ensuring users do not place full blame for spam on their service provider. It will help minimise the damage wireless spam causes to operator and vendor relationships with consumers.

The open nature of NTT DoCoMo's address system has caused problems, which the operator was initially slow to address. However, since late 2001 NTT DoCoMo has implemented a number of measures to try to curb wireless spam.

It recommended users change their mail addresses (over 90 per cent of them had changed addresses by the end of January 2002).

It started using alpha-numeric mail addresses as defaults instead of a phone number and providing 400 packets per month free of charge as a buffer, as users are charged for receiving emails as well as sending them.

NTT DoCoMo also blocks reception of emails sent en masse to unspecified addresses and has applied in court to restrain spam-mail senders.

The company has also provided a range of different options for blocking out spam messages, doubling the amount of numbers users can block and allowed users to incorporate of anti-virus software in handsets.

NTT DoCoMo is also referring to spam management techniques in its advertising to educate users and attempt to differentiate itself from competitors that also suffer from spam problems.

This research is taken from the WirelessInternet@Ovum Advisory Service.
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