Phonepayplus (PPP) – the premium-rate phone regulator will ban the use of the word ‘free’ in promotions for premium-rate services and will put an immediate stop to entire services that do not respond to users’ request that they stop sending messages.

But a group representing the industry has raised questions about whether the PPP’s measures are too specific, despite a marked rise in complaints about operator behaviour, and has said that it is working on a new model of premium-rate re