UK Telecom regulator Ofcom fines TalkTalk £750,000

UK telco TalkTalk has once again been fined by telecoms regulator Ofcom following the company swamping potential customers with silent calls. The company would now have to pay £750,000 for failing to comply with UK law.

The telco was slapped a massive £3 million penalty by the communications watchdog in 2011 for wrongly billing tens of thousands of customers for services that it did not provide and then failing to address the matter.

The regulator's policy allows it to set a limit on the number of abandoned calls made by companies and in its latest ruling against TalkTalk, it found the limit was exceeded by the company by a substantial amount on four on four separate occasions between 1 February and 21 March 2011.

Further, the regulator said, the company also failed to ensure that information messages were played, meaning that consumers received silent calls resulting in TalkTalk making around 9,000 silent and abandoned calls to consumers.

In a separate marketing campaign, TalkTalk failed to adequately follow the regulator's policy by failing to ensure that when using AMD technology to make calls to consumers, it created a reasoned estimate of the technology's accuracy. It also did not keep adequate records to demonstrate its compliance with Ofcom's policy.

While a certain number of abandoned calls are allowed, Ofcom's investigation found the limit had been much exceeded by TalkTalk.

Silent and abandoned calls can cause annoyance and distress to consumers,'' Ofcom consumer group director Claudio Pollack said silent and abandoned calls could cause annoyance and distress to consumers.

He added the penalty sent out a strong message to organisations using call centres that they needed to comply or face action.

In a move to distance itself from allegations of misconduct, TalkTalk points to its call centre operators, Teleperformance and McAlpine Marketing and said in a statement, ''TalkTalk demands high standards from the companies it works with, and as a result (we) immediately stopped using these suppliers.

''TalkTalk works with all its partners to ensure that regulations are adhered to and that customers continue to get good service and best value,'' it added.

The company would now have to pay the fine within 30 days, the entirety of which would be passed onto the HM Treasury.