China's three biggest telecoms operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom have launched a network to filter spam text messages in their latest move to curb rampant junk messaging.

Acting in response to an order from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the three operators set up a trans-operator spam message management network in June to block junk messages and suspend mobile phone numbers that send excessive messages.

Mobile phone numbers will be restricted to sending a maximum of 200 text messages per hour, and 1,000 messages per day. The quota will increase to 500 and 2,000 messages, respectively, on public holidays and festivals.

According to He Huajie, deputy manager of China Unicom's product department, the company has developed three anti-spam software packages and would soon establish a nationwide “Message Firewall.”

There are more than 600 million mobile phone users in China. About 800 million text messages are sent every day. On average, each user receives eight spam messages per week.

Many users are skeptical about the effectiveness of the measures, as the main beneficiaries of rampant spam are the operating companies themselves. Most spam messages are sent in groups using discount phone cards issued by the operators.

MIIT has asked telecoms operators to offer filtering software to users, giving them the option to block junk messages. But the companies say filtering techniques have loopholes that spammers can exploit by altering message contents or withholding numbers.

The draft specification of "technical requirements for spam message filtering" will be submitted to MIIT for approval in the near future. Included in the specification is a third industrial standard concerning spam messages, intended to help users manage received messages.

(China.org.cn by Huang Shan, July 14, 2009)