Chatline craze costly

BATAM, Riau: The chatline craze among Riau people have led to soaring phone bills, not only at their houses, but also at some offices, Antara said.

"We detect an increase in the number of people dialing the various "party line" services in Riau, Soetopo, Commercial Manager for International Gate Center of PT Indosat, said.

Most people use the facility in the evenings, he said.

Soetopo said there were people complaining about the soaring telephone bills, not knowing that their phones had been used for chatline purposes.

One client company in the Natuna Island, for example, had a bill for Rp 3 billion solely for chatline, he said. (emb)