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BT powers up free spam calls blocklist, TalkTalk’s like ‘we’ve been doing this for ages’

BT has launched a new spam-slaying service that promises to filter out millions of unwanted telemarketing calls. 

Real-time analysis of activity on BT’s phone network will see the company sniffing our rogue numbers, which typically make huge numbers of calls and add them to a blocklist. 

Last month telemarketing firm Falcon and Pointer had its licence revoked after ‘plaguing’ the public with around 40 million calls in three months; BT claims that its new technology will stop up to 25 million calls a week. 

Related: Man bites back at PPI spammers with a premium rate numberHow to avoid marketing callsAs well as aiming to censor calls before they’ve even had a chance to reach would-be victims, customers will be able to no platform spammers by adding any numbers that get through the dragnet to their own personal blocklists. 

If enough people sin bin the same company, BT says that it will expand its main blocklist to cover new offenders. 

John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: “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.

“We are doing our bit. We call on other providers to up their game in the fight against this menace. 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.”

TalkTalk was quick to point out that it’s been offering a service called HomeSafe, which does the same thing, since 2013. 

A spokesperson for the ISP, which lost thousands of customers details in the wake of a co-ordinated attack last year, said: “TalkTalk has already been blocking nuisance and scam calls for over two years, during which time we have been the only provider to offer this service for free. We now block 70 million unwanted calls a month from reaching TalkTalk homes, which is double the amount we blocked last year.

“We’re pleased to see other providers follow our lead in taking a stand against nuisance calls. But this is an urgent problem, which can only be tackled if government mandates all telecoms providers to offer free call blocking.”

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