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| Tuesday, 18 January 2005 |
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SLT internet subscribers billed for IDD calls not taken by Shirajiv Sirimane Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) internet subscribers are complaining that they are receiving high International Direct Dialling (IDD) bill charges for IDD numbers which they have not taken. Almost all customers who have Internet connections with the IDD facility face this problem. Some customers have received monthly IDD bills amounting to over Rs. 15,000. According to IT Engineer Romesh Jayasekera, whenever a person logs in to the internet to browse a web site many other web sites open automatically. "Sometimes this is a result of a computer virus," he said. "When the customer continues to browse this web site, an IDD connection is automatically created," he said. The danger in this is that the customer is not warned in any way that an IDD connection has been created automatically. While the IDD call is in progress the other local connection too is maintained. The unsuspecting customer then keeps on browsing not knowing that an IDD call too is in progress. "There is no way to find this out," he said. Jayasekera also said that this risk is greater if a person logs in to adult sites. He said that the best way to overcome this problem is to create a pin number for IDD. "However, this is not practical for companies who have regular overseas dealings," he said. He said that the government and the Central Bank took a step in the right direction by educating the public on the adverse effects of the Pyramid issue. "Likewise the Sri Lankan government and Telecom must explore the possibility of taking legal action against the originators of these sites which invade the privacy of the public," he said. The SLT should have taken a lead and warned the public on this issue, he said. Meanwhile, a Sri Lanka Telecom Technical Division official said that three months ago they warned the public on the issue. "We have observed that Latvia, Solomon Island, Cooks Island, UK Mobile, Japan Mobile and Estonia, are some of the countries where such web sites are maintained and IDD calls diverted to. "Customers will realise the automatic origination of such IDD calls only when they receive the monthly invoice with IDD call charges. SLT advises customers to ensure that their IDD facility is kept disabled using a secret code when one uses the Internet facility so that such inadvertent automatic dialling of IDD calls could be prevented," he said. The Secret Code facility could be obtained from the area Regional Telecom Office Manager. |
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