ICSTIS rebrands as PhonepayPlus

ICSTIS, the premium phone line services regulator, has changed its name to PhonepayPlus from today.

The organisation said the name change will make it more "meaningful and memorable".

Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of PhonepayPlus, said: "Changes in the services we regulate and the way in which we do it brought us to the point where re-branding was essential. ICSTIS was no longer an accurate description of our organisation, culture or remit. In fact, the name was a significant barrier in terms of the industry and consumers knowing who we were and what we did."

The name change came as the organisation unveiled new YouGov research showing that two-thirds of the UK population have a distinct distrust of phone-in competitions, while 60% admit to having little faith in chat and entertainment services.

The research also showed that 76% of people would not consider using a premium rate service in the next 12 months.

Last month the regulator fined premium rate service provider Opera £250,000 for misconduct in its phone competitions for GMTV.

Graham added: "After the headlines of recent months, there is no doubt that the public's trust in phone-paid services has been dented. While we don't underestimate the size of the task ahead, we are confident that confidence in phone-paid services can be restored. As well as knowing that there is an organisation out there making sure services are being operated fairly, consumers need to know where to go if they need advice or have a specific problem."

As part of the rebrand, PhonepayPlus has also set up a Compliance Team to advise all those who provide premium rate services to ensure that they comply with the PhonepayPlus Code of Practice, and a new SMS text service will be launched to allow the public to report problems at their convenience using their mobile phones.