On October 1st Sprint will be launching their new compliance program, similar to the recent initiatives of the other large U.S carriers. The program seems like a hybrid of some of the existing policies out there. Here is the language below:
All short code campaigns running on Sprint’s network must comply with both MMA Consumer Best Practices and the new Sprint policy. During an audit, a violation of these rules is assigned a severity level (1, 2, 3). Guidance on the actions needed to resolve specific types of violations is included in the attached document. We have also included a copy of the MMA guidelines for your reference.
Sprint will reward content providers who have limited or no audit violations. Incentive payouts may range from 2.5% to 10% of standard revenue share payout. Furthermore, Sprint will be imposing penalties dependent on severity level, which could range from 2% to 100% of your monthly revenue as outlined in the schedule below. All incentives and penalties are assessed at the sole discretion of Sprint, on an individual short code basis. GoLive! Mobile will pass along the relevant incentive or penalty to the owner of the associated short code as part of the outpayment settlement process.
Compliance Adjustments
|
Revenue Share |
||
|
NO Severity 1’s |
NO Severity 2’s |
+ 10% |
|
NO Severity 1’s |
1-2 Severity 2’s |
+ 5% |
|
NO Severity 1’s |
3-4 Severity 2’s |
+ 2.5% |
|
NO Severity 1’s |
5+ Severity 2’s |
Standard Revenue Share |
|
1-9 Severity 1’s |
N/A |
- 2% per violation |
|
10+ Severity 1’s |
N/A |
- 100% of monthly short code revenue |
In addition, Sprint is imposing penalties on billing incidents resulting in refunds. If the billing/refund incident is found by Sprint, Sprint charges 115% of the refund amount per incident. If the billing/refund incident is communicated to Sprint within five business days of the incident, 105% of the refund amount is charged, and after five business days, 110%. Reports of an incident must include the amount of the refund/billing incident, a list of MDNs affected, and root cause analysis, which should include cause of the issue, dates of the incident, steps taken to resolve the issue, and next steps to ensure the incident does not happen again. Please see the attached documents for several templates that you may use for this purpose. Lastly, if a content provider has a refund rate greater than 7% for 3 consecutive months on one short code, Sprint will terminate the short code.
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