Telenor to launch traffic warning for telephony customers

ISDN or analogue lines are still the most common form of connection to the Internet, especially for many smaller businesses and sole proprietorships. Unfortunately, the Internet is not risk-free, as some of Telenor's customers have painfully learned. The most common error is that modems are incorrectly configured, in such a way that they continue to connect to the Internet without the user's knowledge. This may happen even when computers are switched off. The result could be unusually high phone bills for speech traffic that customers never wanted.

Disloyal employees, and personnel who gain access to companies' premises outside of normal working hours, have been known to make long-distance calls without the consent of the companies. Employees have also unexpectedly downloaded programmes from the Internet that connect to servers in such countries as the Seychelles, Abu Garcia or other remote destinations that charge a very high rate per minute. In rare cases, criminals have also been known to break into customers' equipment, often with the result that the customers have been charged with traffic generated by intruders.

To protect our business customers against such incidents, Telenor now introduces TrafficWarning. It is easy to subscribe to this service. All customers have to do is register as subscribers through Telenor Customer Services Online. Registration and use is free. All Business customers will be able access to this service through Customer Services Business at 05000. Users register the phone numbers they want to monitor, and state a limit of cover per day. Warnings will be issued in the form of SMS messages to a mobile phone number stated by the customer, and in the form of e-mails containing outlines of traffic for the relevant number. Subscription is free, but the SMS warning costs NOK 20. The service applies for all ISDN and analogue lines supplied by Telenor.

The monitoring does not involve any tapping into customers' speech traffic or Internet use; all it does is register traffic minutes.

"Telenor shall be a leading supplier of security solutions for the ICT industry. TrafficWarning is part of our overall security effort, and part of our effort to provide better service to our customers and added value to subscriptions," said Director Anders Hauglie-Hanssen at Telenor Business Communications.