Ofcom investigates Talktalk for making silent calls

Talktalk is under investigation by Ofcom for "persistently" making silent phone calls.

The communications regulator has now ordered the internet service provider (ISP) to explain itself and take steps to ensure this misuse of technology to generate these phone calls it stopped.

Companies often use computers to generate phone calls as part of marketing exercises. Ofcom said that it had "reasonable grounds for believing that between 1 February 2011 and 21 March 2011, Talktalk persistently misused an electronic communications network or electronic communications services".

These calls were routed through two call centres, one based in the UK and one in South Africa.

Ofcom said that this resulted in an excessive number of abandoned calls during the period investigated. It also said Talktalk had made one or more repeat calls to a specific numbers within 24 hours, when a call had been identified by Answer Machine Detection equipment as having been picked up by an answer machine.

This is a breach of section 128 of the Communications Act 2003 and Ofcom said Talktalk now had 14 days in which to respond to its notification. After this the regulator said it would consider if further action would be appropriate; such as imposing a financial penalty on the ISP.

Talktalk said that these calls were not generated by the electronic communications technology but "disgruntled agents".

It went on to say that it “demands high standards from the companies it works with and closely monitors their performance. In February and March 2011 a company who were completing a notice period with us did not always meet these standards and were responsible for abandoned marketing calls being made.

"A sales agency working for our business-to-business division has also been found to make excessive abandoned calls. Talktalk no longer works with these sales agencies and, if Ofcom imposes a financial penalty, we will recover this sum from the third party responsible.

"Talktalk works with all its partners to ensure that regulations are adhered to and that customers continue to get good service and best value.”