China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued a circular, mandating that smartphone service providers issue free reminders to customers before they use up their monthly allocation of data transmission services, websites Dahe.cn reports.

The move is in response to complaints that most smartphone users usually are not aware that they have used up their monthly allocation of data transmission services until they receive their phone bills and notice the high fee they must pay for exceeding the limit.

The circular said carriers must remind their customers about the conditions of use during the monthly billing cycle via short messages, voice reminders or pop-up window websites. If customers use up their monthly data transmission services, carriers should remind them about fees for excess use.

Moreover, the circular said carriers must inform their customers about standard data transmission service roaming fees abroad and in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

According to the report, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom already have provided some free reminder services to their customers. All three carriers must fully comply with the terms of the circular by July 1.

(CRIENGLISH.com January 30, 2012)