MSE News: Watchdogs put Telephone Preference Service under nuisance calls spotlight

ValHaller

Graham1 wrote: »

What BT said in their written evidence http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmcumeds/writev/636-i/ntc008.htm

19. From autumn 2013 customers will, if required, in addition to the wording INTL, start to see the CLI of calls from abroad. Our plan is, as exchanges are upgraded, to roll out this facility to all customers by autumn 2014. This network development will allow customers to screen their calls more easily and recognise the numbers of friends and family calling from abroad. It will also readily provide CLI /data to help customers report their calls to the regulators.

So, just in time for their selling a new phone handset that can screen based on caller-id and just as they start charging extra for caller-id.

The cynic in me says that BT deliberately stopped international CLI so that they got termination fees for landing international calls - just needing the subscriber to pick the phone up in order to collect - hence they tried hard to be friendly to international phone spammers.

But now people have become so sick of it and are abandoning landlines in their droves that BT are forced to act to protect their landline business.

That is the cynic speaking.

John_Pierpoint

If 1581 picks up the call, does BT still get paid?

ValHaller

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

If 1581 picks up the call, does BT still get paid?

I believe that they do and I believe it is part of the financial reasoning for introducing the service.

cepheus

Perhaps they should be forced to publish the number of complaints upheld and the fines imposed on the firms? (zero I guess)

Block on cold calls not working, says Which?

The TPS is run by the Direct Marketing Association and has about 19 million people on its register. The head of the service, John Mitchison, said that it was frustrating that calls were still being made to registered users, but he stressed that the service did not have any enforcement powers.

"We hold the database of telephone numbers and we take complaints if people still receive calls," he said.

"We act on every complaint by contacting the company concerned and reminding them of their legal obligations. We then pass all the information on to the Information Commissioner's Office, which can issue fines of up to £500,000 to those people who ignore the regulations."