There is no evidence to show that telecommunication companies (telco) leaked mobile phone numbers of consumers to content providers, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

However, the government has not ruled out the possibility of dealers or telecommunication company insiders leaking consumer information to content providers, said Deputy Information Communications and Culture Minister Joseph Salang.    

“Many people assumed that content providers who sent business SMS contents to phone users used information obtained from telecommunications companies. But investigations by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) proved it did not happen.  

“There is a possibility the telco dealers or insiders leak such information required by the content providers. I believe many numbers were harvested randomly,” he said when replying to a question by Ismail Abd Muttalib (BN-Maran) during the question-and-answer session.

Ismail had wanted to know how the ministry controlled and supervised the promotion of business through SMS and what was the punishment if there was proof of scams in such a business.

Salang said MCMC was always monitoring the activities of licence holders through the Communications and Multinmedia Act 1998 which provides for a fine of not more than RM100,000 or jail of not more than two years or both, if convicted.

He said through the monitoring of MCMC, 185 cases of pornographic, defamatatory and offensive SMS dissemination were investigated under Section 233 of the act, last year.

Replying to a supplementary question by Dr Mohamad Shahrum Osman (BN-Lipis), Salang said the industry practiced self-regulation to handle customer complaints.

“This included the setting up of a billing command centre to handle customer billing problems and a framework to improve the billing system,” he said.  

Salang said Pos Malaysia Berhad was also implementing the project ‘Address for all’ for houses which do not have complete addresses.

He said there were 361,241 premises and houses which are not numbered throughout the country, involving 138 delivery offices and 3,963 call points.

“Through this project, the houses and premises would be given comprehensive addresses to facilitate implementation,” he said in reply to a question by Wee Jeck Seng (BN-Tanjong Piai).

- Bernama