No more nuisance calls (hopefully) - BT to launch call - blocking service

[Scottonpc]

BT has announced a "breakthrough" that it says will help customers avoid nuisance phone calls on their landlines. By the end of 2016, the company plans to launch a free service that diverts cold calls to voicemail. It will use "huge computing power" to find and blacklist "rogue numbers". BT claims this "proactive intervention" will block around 25 million unwanted calls every week. BT will then share any information it gathers with regulators, such as Ofcom and the Information Commisioner's Office, to help them take legal action against nuisance callers. 

 

As part of the service customers will be able to add phone numbers to a blacklist for free, and block certain categories of calls, such as withheld numbers and international calls. Once a call has been moved to voicemail, customers can listen to it to decide if they need to take further action. John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, called on other companies to "up their game" in the fight against nuisance calls. He said: "They can help us to root out the malicious players they may be hosting on their own networks when we identify dodgy and suspicious calling behaviour".

 

Telcoms experts welcomed the news, but warned that it would be hard for BT to determine what constitutes a nuisance call. To benefit, you'll need to opt into the scheme - register at www.bt.com/nuisancecalls

[sissj]

8 minutes ago, Scottonpc said:

BT has announced a "breakthrough" that it says will help customers avoid nuisance phone calls on their landlines. By the end of 2016, the company plans to launch a free service that diverts cold calls to voicemail. It will use "huge computing power" to find and blacklist "rogue numbers". BT claims this "proactive intervention" will block around 25 million unwanted calls every week. BT will then share any information it gathers with regulators, such as Ofcom and the Information Commisioner's Office, to help them take legal action against nuisance callers. 

 

As part of the service customers will be able to add phone numbers to a blacklist for free, and block certain categories of calls, such as withheld numbers and international calls. Once a call has been moved to voicemail, customers can listen to it to decide if they need to take further action. John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, called on other companies to "up their game" in the fight against nuisance calls. He said: "They can help us to root out the malicious players they may be hosting on their own networks when we identify dodgy and suspicious calling behaviour".

 

Telcoms experts welcomed the news, but warned that it would be hard for BT to determine what constitutes a nuisance call. To benefit, you'll need to opt into the scheme - register at www.bt.com/nuisancecalls

Nice news-piece but BT is notorious for not following through with their promises

[zacRupnow]

Is BT a Canadian company? In the US we have been able to block numbers on landline for years, ever since call ads we've been able to pay extra to have the phone company put you number on an off-limit list for advertisers, since 2010 (I think) you could get a specific number blocked by contacting support.

 

Landline is being abandoned pretty quickly anyway, most people I know got rid of it, we got rid of ours last year.

[ZestyJalapeno]

21 minutes ago, zacRupnow said:

Is BT a Canadian company? In the US we have been able to block numbers on landline for years, ever since call ads we've been able to pay extra to have the phone company put you number on an off-limit list for advertisers, since 2010 (I think) you could get a specific number blocked by contacting support.

 

Landline is being abandoned pretty quickly anyway, most people I know got rid of it, we got rid of ours last year.

BT stands for British Telecoms, and no, we cannot get rid of landline here because we have to pay for a mandatory "line rental" fee on top of broadband regardless of whether we actually have a house phone or not. 

[zacRupnow]

10 minutes ago, Dogeystyle said:

we have to pay for a mandatory "line rental" fee on top of broadband regardless of whether we actually have a house phone or not. 

That's retarded in every sense of the word...

[ZestyJalapeno]

2 minutes ago, zacRupnow said:

That's retarded in every sense of the word...

Line rental is the work of evil but it's better than Comcast.

[Prysin]

took them fifty fucking years to realize

 

[Puddleuk]

Its a good idea but you can already stop nuisance callers already to a certain extent. All you need to do is ask them to remove you from their mailing/call list, they are then legally obligated to oblige. If they keep calling after that request then you can sue.