British telecom operator BT has rolled out a new service for its customers to block about 30 million nuisance calls each week.
The service available for free would divert unwanted calls before they reach British homes.
A team at BT’s Oswestry, Shropshire centre would supervise this Call Protect service. The team would identify rogue numbers by analyzing live data and put such numbers in blacklist. Typically, these rogue number would be those making huge numbers of calls.
According to BT, it could divert up to 15 million calls a week from PPI and personal accident claims companies alone. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has revealed that it receives more than 14,000 complaints regarding nuisance calls each month.
Last year, the Government had said that such companies should refrain from continually harassing people otherwise their bosses would be fined up to £500,000.
Users can now create their own personal blacklist and get those unwanted numbers blocked by dialing 1572 or through internet.
Almost 50% of the calls received on their home phones are thought to be unwanted calls from cold callers trying to sell their products or services. For elderly people, the figure seems to be even higher as these people also often targeted by fraudsters presenting themselves as salesmen. Recently, BT carried out a survey that revealed that people receive an average of four nuisance calls a week. Sixty percent of the people receiving such calls said they find such calls very stressful.
“We’ve been at the forefront of equipping our customers to defend themselves against the huge numbers of PPI and unwanted marketing calls that are continuing to grow,” said John Petter, CEO of BT Consumer.
“Now, with our unique technology, we can identify and tackle huge numbers of those calls in the network and also give our customers control over the calls they receive,” he added.
Britain’s Digital Minister Matt Hancock has welcomed the launch of new service. He said: “Nuisance callers are a terrible blight on society and Government and industry are working together to crack down on them.”
“We’ve forced companies to display their numbers when they call you, made it easier to prosecute those involved in making the calls and increased the maximum fines up to £500,000.”
“We welcome BT’s new service, which offers customers an additional level of protection, helping them to fight back against this ongoing harassment.”
According to Vickie Sheriff, director of campaigns and communications at Which?, telecoms companies have a responsibility to find a solution of nuisance calls.
“We have long campaigned for tougher action to tackle this problem and it’s encouraging to see new technology being rolled out as part of the solution,” he said.
Sheriff added: “Now it needs to deliver results for the millions of people harassed every day by nuisance calls, and we expect other companies to follow suit with their own solutions.”
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