Beep beep goes your mobile phone. It’s an SMS saying you’ve been subscribed to a $10-a-week premium service.

“What the?” you say – possibly out loud, ending with a swear word – as you wonder how and when you subscribed to such a service.

Millions of Australians have asked themselves the same question, but for some, relief is on the way.

The nation’s largest telco Telstra says it will axe third-party billing this year.

“From December 3 2017, third-party service providers will no longer be permitted to charge new mobile content subscriptions to our customers’ bills,” said Telstra’s director of consumer mobiles Kevin Teoh.

“Customers will be free to purchase subscription mobile content using alternative payment methods, however the current arrangement where a customer can elect to purchase a subscription for third-party content and charge it to their Telstra bill, will end.”

Third-party billing is a controversial practice where people are subscribed to content like mobile games and quizzes, usually via a simple click on a website.

You are supposed to be asked twice if you want to opt-in, but many customers have complained that charges were added to their bill without their knowledge.

When the ABC’s ‘Tell Me Straight’ podcast investigated third-party billing practices last month, it was deluged by emails from angry Telstra and Optus customers, many labelling it a scam.

The majority of complaints to the ABC were from Telstra customers arguing the telco had signed them up without their consent and not dealt with complaints in the timely matter.

Some people were frustrated their children had been signed up, while many others reported paying hundreds of dollars for quizzes and games they couldn’t access.

All were angry that their telco had allowed them to be subscribed to what they deemed a low-value service, and made it difficult to get refunds and unsubscribe.

Consumer groups welcome announcement, call on Optus to do the same thing

A report by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) revealed that around 12 per cent of Australians had been sucked into third-party billing scams.

The group believes almost 1.9 million people could be affected, and have thanked Telstra for its decision.

“We congratulate Telstra on stepping up and taking action to stop their customers from getting slugged by unwanted third-party subscriptions,” said ACCAN’s chief executive Teresa Corbin.

“Consumers have had to put up with these unexpected charges far too long.”

A spokesperson for Optus said the company is reviewing its third-party content relationships

“Optus constantly monitors its third-party content provider’s compliance with a strict set of consumer safeguards,” the spokesperson said.

ACCAN is also calling for more regulation of third-party billing, ranging from compliance monitoring to setting the services to opt-in by default, rather than opt-out.

“There is still a need for strong consumer safeguards to prevent unexpected third party charges,” said Ms Corbin.

Telstra said last year it implemented a specifically-trained team to help customers with complaints about the services, but customers were still unhappy.

“Last year we made a number of changes to improve the sign-up process, but customers continue to tell us the experience is poor,” said spokesperson Kevin Teoh.

“We have taken the decision to withdraw support for new third-party content subscriptions.”

Telstra users who are already signed up to third party services will get no reprieve from the changes.

If they don’t want the premium services, they may still have to call their telco or the third party to request to be unsubscribed.

-ABC