Addis Ababa — Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) issued a disclaimer that explains the result of inflated telephone bills caused by accessing pornographic websites.

Customers accessing pornographic websites (xxx actions) pay 10 birr per minute like any other international call, the corporation announced in a press release it sent to The Daily Monitor since the Pornographic Service Provider's company charges its own call rates.

The payment bill request may come under the name of countries where Pornographic Service Providers operate, for instance Guinea Bissau.

The connection is not made through ETC's ISP but to a company operating pornographic sites through long distance calls, the statement said.

ETC does not charge payment when customers access the server of the pornographic sites through the Internet but when they apparently make a call to access those servers, which effectively piles to 10 birr per minute.

Any customer accessing pornographic sites suffers the price of international calls, the release warns.

International calls are caused when a customer browses through free access sites where adult site diallers like platinum diallers, instance access dialler, and ETC are installed on the computer of the customer.

Such programs enable the customer to make long distance calls after accessing the site where it would be audible on the modem while it disconnects from the Internet and goes to make long distance calls.

The calls might often be made to Estonia, Guinea Bissau, Belgium, Comoros, Liechtenstein, and others.

Moreover, telephone bills might state as a phone call being made to the former Soviet Union whose code was 007.

Though the Soviet Union had crumbled in to different other states, the code is still the same for the newly created states, for instance, Estonia where one of such international calls are made, the corporation's disclaimer statement affirms.

ETC said not all pornographic sites cause international call rates but free access sites in most cases.

ETC's statement had bounced against a report made by the Amharic weekly Reporter that accused ETC for collecting payment for international calls made to a defunct nation, Soviet Union.