Time Warner Cable is making it easier for about 16 million phone customers to avoid saying hello repeatedly and asking questions for a few seconds before realizing they're speaking to an automated phone system. Now the telecom company's customers can simply fill in a form to opt out of robocalls.
It's not something telecom companies have embraced, but TWC has integrated a third-party call-blocking filter into its phone service.
Nomorobo, as the name suggests, is out to intercept robocalls before customers do. The service has been integrated into TWC's VoiceZone.
Levering TWC's Answer Anywhere system, which routes calls to multiple locations at once, Nomorobo will screen calls for telemarketers and automated messages. Should such a call come through to a number protected by Nomorobo, the phone will only ring once and the call-blocking service will end it.
To fire up Nomorobo, TWC phone customers will need to log into their VoiceZone accounts with their TWC IDs. From there, they'll need to select the call privacy option from the Settings tab and then turn on Nomorobo.
Robocalls make up the largest category of complaints consumers file with the Federal Communications Commission, according to Jeff Lindsay, GVP and General Manager of TWC Home Phone. So TWC is trying to do all that it can to help its customer take control of the calls they receive at home, he said.
"Nomorobo, along with several other privacy features we offer, provides our customers peace of mind in knowing that illegal telemarketing and robocalls calls won't get through," Lindsay said.
Along with Nomorobo, TWC offers "Peace and Quiet" through VoiceZone. Peace and Quite is a feature that can block up 30 user-specified phone numbers, or work from the opposite direction and only allow up to 30 numbers through.
Peace and Quite also rejects calls from numbers with call ID information hidden. And working from the opposite direction, it can also hide the caller ID information of a user.
"Our all-digital phone technology allows us to bring sophisticated solutions to our customers," said Lindsay. "They can enjoy pure voice quality, unsurpassed reliability and advanced phone features like Nomorobo, our Phone2Go app, international calling at no extra cost and much more."
