Monday, November 27, 2006

Sprint standards and penalties

Sprint has elaborated a number of standards that content providers must comply with or face penalties. The standards go beyond the guidelines released by the MMA today and are described in full detail below:
  1. Compliance with the Consumer Best Practices Guidelines, as set forth by the Mobile Marketing Assocation. The guide can be downloaded here
  2. Compliance with any rules or requirements set forth by Sprint from time to time regarding campaign guidelines. Check the Quios white paper for list of rules and requirements.
  3. De-activated phone numbers must be removed from all your services within 24 hour of receipt.
  4. Messages destined to invalid or blocked Sprint phone numbers shall comprise no more than 25% of all messages delivered per month.
  5. Billable events destined to invalid or blocked Sprint phone numbers shall comprise no more than 25% of all billable events delivered per month.
Re. 4 and 5, Quios customers are in good shape because we do a number look up on every phone number we receive to avoid sending any invalid messages or billing events to the carriers.

Sprint may enforce the following penalties if you do not meet the standards outlined above:
  1. Sprint, in its sole discretion, may terminate a campaign that is determined to be in non-compliance.
  2. Sprint may recover any 'reasonable and documented out-of-pocket costs' to a maximum amount for any single breach or series of related breaches equal to the lesser of (a) 20% of the amount owed to the content provider in that month or (b) USD $30,000 for the initial breach, USD $50,000 in the event of a second breach of the same Sprint standard, or USD $100,000, in the event of a third breach of the same Sprint standard. These amounts may be set off from any fees or revenue share owed to you.

MMA Releases update to Consumer Best Practices Guideline

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today released an update to the Consumer Best Practices Guide. The guide provides content providers with specific guidelines on how to set up and manage mobile campaigns.

Here are the key changes:
  • Use of 'free' terminology in advertising and promotion
  • Marketing to children
  • Processing of carrier deactivation files and management of spending cap limits
  • Viral marketing
The most recent version of the guidelines can be downloaded here.