TalkTalk Joins Major UK ISPs to Sign Nuisance Calls Strategy with Ofcom

UK ISP TalkTalk has today announced that they’ve joined ten other broadband and mobile providers in signing Ofcom’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Nuisance Calls, which commits them to develop new technical measures for “reducing the impact of unlawful nuisance calls on consumers“.

The ISP currently claims to be the “only UK Communications Provider to block nuisance calls at a network level,” which stops about 70 million such calls a month. On the other hand the provider has separately been criticised for its recent security breaches (example), which have helped to create many of the scam calls that their own service is intended to block.

Otherwise the MoU establishes a framework, which will be reviewed at least once every two years, for voluntary co-operation on the development of related technical measures between providers.

The MoU Agreement (Dec 2015)

2.1 There is collective agreement amongst all CPs in this MoU to carry out a monthly network monitoring and call volume measurement exercise and for each CP to provide individual reports to Ofcom. The scope of all data captured as part of this exercise will be pre-agreed between the CP and Ofcom, provided to Ofcom by each CP under a formal information notice and will only be used to assist Ofcom and the participating CPs to take steps towards addressing the problem of unlawful nuisance calls.

2.2 There is collective agreement amongst all CPs in this MoU to voluntarily implement technical measures, aimed at reducing certain types of nuisance calls, underpinned by processes agreed by all participating CPs.

2.3 All CPs participating in this MoU agree to ensure that the technical measures they implement are in-line with Ofcom’s CLI guidelines and other policy publications.

2.4 It is understood and agreed amongst all CPs in this MoU that their participation in the implementation of technical and operational measures is voluntary, and that any CP is able to exit from their commitment by informing Ofcom of their exit.

The other providers participating in this MoU include: BT (EE), Sky Broadband, Gamma Telecom, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Three UK, KCom Group Plc (KC) and O2.