It's an annoying thing many households have
to put up with - answering the phone to find nobody on the other end of the line. They are often from a company's call centre which uses
automatic dialling in the hope of selling you something. But if there aren't enough
staff on hand to speak, the call into your home stays silent.
Industry regulator, Ofcom, says it's
a breach3 of their guidelines for businesses who make
persistent4 unwanted phone calls. And now those
caught breaking the law could face fines of £2m.
Kevin Brennan, Consumer Affairs Minister: 'It is still a real problem, despite the raising of fines that have gone on in the past. Last year, Ofcom did a survey and found that half of people that they surveyed said that it was
a real nuisance to them.'
David Hickson, campaigner: 'We don't know
how much of a deterrent5 it will be. The point is that the action point of Ofcom should be to stop people from making silent calls, not just
to penalise them.'
Despite previous attempts
to tackle this, almost half of the UK still receives silent phone calls. So officials will hope the threat of a bigger fine can help
stamp it out.
Gavin Ramjaun, BBC News
to put up with
to accept something even though you are not happy about it, to be forced to tolerate
automatic dialling
when a computerised device, called a predictive dialler, is used by call centres to phone a lot of people in one go
staff on hand
company employees available
a breach of their guidelines
when their official recommendations are broken
caught
here, noticed or reported
a real nuisance
annoying and/or irritating them a great deal
how much of a deterrent
how effective in preventing silent calls
to penalise
to punish for breaking a law
to tackle
to deal with/resolve
stamp it out
if you stamp something out, you put an end to it/eradicate it
