Mobile-phone content application provider Linktone Ltd. said it is being sanctioned by carrier China Mobile for billing mistakes.
Linktone said it is being penalized for inadvertently billing 27,000 WAP customers 72 cents for a service that should have been free. As a result, China Mobile will withhold Linktone’s WAP revenues between January and June next year. For the third quarter of 2004, WAP services accounted for 1.8 percent of Linktone’s total gross revenues, the company said.
During the first half of next year, China Mobile will also suspend approval of any new product applications and joint marketing activities for Linktone platforms, including short message services, multimedia messaging services, WAP, Java, interactive voice response and ringback tones.
“As a result of the China Mobile sanctions, the company currently expects no impact on fourth-quarter 2004 gross revenues and moderate impact on 2005 gross revenues,” the company said.
Linktone’s is the latest in a series of sanctions on wireless operators and content providers in a crackdown directed by the Chinese government. China Mobile, of which the government owns 75 percent, has heavily sanctioned nearly all its service providers in recent months, according to a Yankee Group report.
The penalties are part of a larger effort by Beijing to control content on wireless networks and the Internet. Since July, China has shut down more than 700 pornographic Web sites and arrested hundreds involved in their operation. Providers of “inappropriate” SMS, MMS and WAP content have also been targeted.
