BT launches free service to deal with nuisance calls

The service, called BT Call Protect, will divert unwanted calls to a junk voicemail box – similar to how junk emails end up in a spam folder. BT reckons the irritation suppression service could divert up to 30 million nuisance calls a week. That means no more PPI calls, or robots bleating on about personal injury – bliss.

According to BT, the new service is the first of its kind in the UK, and works by the analysing huge amounts of large data. BT staff are able to identify naughty numbers – they typically make lots of calls – and add them to a blacklist. This means that calls are automatically diverted into the junk voicemail box before they trouble the customer.

Although BT will have its own blacklist, customers can add numbers to their own personal list of blocked calls. To do that, they simply dial 1572 after receiving a nuisance call, or go online to log the number. In addition, who categories of calls can be blocked, such as withheld numbers or international calls. Read more…