British Telecommunications (BT), the UK network operator, is gearing up to address the problem of nuisance calls made to landlines.
How? BT is poised to introduce a new service which will enable consumers to divert the "rogue" numbers to a junk voicebox, enabling them to avoid nonsensical calls.
The new system from BT will basically operate like a "junk" email folder, diverting undesirable calls to a different voicemail box automatically. The new feature is expected to be operational by the latter part of 2016 and BT anticipates that it will aid in the diversion of nearly 25 million rogue calls each week.
"Nuisance calls are one of the great annoyances of modern life. Everyone will have received one. We are delighted to have made this major breakthrough. We are giving control of the landline back to our customers and removing a major hassle and grief for millions of customers," said John Petter, CEO of BT Consumer.
How Will The Service Operate?
The free service from BT will monitor calls made to a subscriber's landline and identify the undesirable numbers.
The monitoring will be done by a dedicated team from BT who will screen calls made to landlines of the company's 10 million domestic customers. The team will also be responsible for identifying any recurring trends. The rogue numbers which the team identifies will then be diverted to the junk voicebox.
While a bulk of the rogue numbers will be identified by BT at a network level, the customers will also have the ability to blacklist calls. Customers will be able to nominate categories they wish to avoid like withheld numbers or international calls, as well as add individual numbers they want to avoid. BT will then do the rest and block these blacklisted numbers.
BT is optimistic that the by analyzing the massive amount of data, it will be able to make a breakthrough. The intervention will aid in the reduction of dodgy and unwanted calls made to customers.
BT will also be sharing the data with regulatory bodies such as the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — which lately issued a crackdown on rogue texts and call, issuing warnings to more than 1,000 companies who it believes are selling and buying name and number lists — and Ofcom.
The telecommunications company will be starting the service later in 2016. Although an exact date has not been divulged by BT. However, interested customers can pre-register for the service at www.bt.com/nuisancecalls from Thursday, Feb. 11.
