Ofcom today published information about the main services offered by phone companies that can help consumers protect themselves against nuisance calls and compare any charges that may apply.
Some of the call features offered by landline providers include Caller Display, Incoming Call Blocking, Anonymous Call Rejection, Last Caller Identification (or 1471) and Voicemail (or 1571).
Ofcom has set out the charges for these services across seven landline providers. In some cases, these services are free. In other instances, monthly charges can apply and may vary depending on which particular package a customer is signed up to.
Claudio Pollack, Ofcom's Consumer Group Director said: When shopping around for a new landline service or provider it's important that consumers have access to information about a range of factors such as price, quality of service and any additional call features.
For many consumers, protecting themselves against nuisance calls may be a high priority and providers offer a number of useful services.
We have set out information about some of these services to help consumers understand the choice available and whether they're free or cost extra. This information is intended to help consumers to make an informed decision about the landline provider and package that might best meet their needs.
The prices listed are per month. The communication providers shown above are those with a relevant market share above 1% or with a universal service obligation to ensure that basic fixed line telecoms services are available at an affordable price to citizens across the UK (BT and KC). There are other communications providers offering the same or similar services. When choosing a provider consumers should also consider them and check their provision of the relevant services and the charges. Consumers who are a customer of another provider should check their services and charges.
For ease of comparison Ofcom has used a generic name and description for each of the services offered by the communications providers listed. Whilst the services are broadly comparable there may be slight differences in the way the services operate and the features they offer. Consumers should therefore check the precise nature of the service with the provider directly.
Information correct as at 10 December 2013
Caller Display
Caller display helps consumers (who have handsets capable of displaying numbers) identify who is calling them. A consumer can choose whether to answer an unrecognised number or not and shield themselves from potential nuisance calls.
Caller display information is also important so customers can report nuisance calls to Ofcom and other regulators, and for the effective use of handsets and services that rely on the telephone number to help block and filter calls.
Incoming Call Blocking
Incoming Call Blocking services can help consumers to tackle nuisance or unwanted calls by preventing selected numbers from getting through.
Anonymous Call Rejection
Scammers or callers making unsolicited or nuisance marketing calls may wilfully try to conceal their identity by withholding their number.
Anonymous Call Rejection allows consumers to stop calls from people who withhold their number from getting through.
Last Caller Identification or 1471
If a consumer receives a nuisance call, dialling the 1471 service immediately afterwards can help identify the telephone number of the last caller (unless the caller has withheld their number).i
Consumers could then contact the person or company to opt out of future calls, or report the caller to the relevant regulator.
Voicemail or 1571 (standard and enhanced services)
A voicemail service allows consumers to decline to answer certain calls (perhaps those from an unrecognised number) and make a choice whether to return the call once they have listened to the message.
Some providers also offer an enhanced voicemail service. This includes features such as remote access, allowing consumers to listen to messages from a device other than their landline.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
* On 30 September 2013, BT announced price changes for all its residential customers. These changes will take effect from 4 January 2014. The prices listed here are the prices that will be charged by BT from 4 January and not the charges currently applied by BT. Legacy products such as BT's Call Minder and Caller Display services, offered as part of BT's call features package, have not been included as they are no longer being actively marketed by BT.
BT's caller display product is currently free with the BT Privacy product when consumers make a minimum of two calls per month. If the call quota is not met customers are charged £2 a month. From 4 January 2014, the service will be free on request with a 12 month line rental contract or charged at £1.75. Customers on the BT Basic tariff will receive BT Privacy with caller display without charge and with no commitment to a 12 month line rental contract.
KC's charges of £1.02 for caller display and £1.00 for anonymous caller reject applies to consumers who are on their light user scheme, KC Local and homelite tariffs. For all other tariffs, including their social access package, the services are free. The charge of £1.02 for 1571 voicemail applies to the light user scheme, KC Local, homelite and the social access package.
** This service is not available to Virgin Media's cable customers.
i The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive contain provisions enabling a calling party to withhold their calling line identification (CLI). The ICO has primary responsibility for enforcing these regulations.
ii Price comparison websites can assist consumers when they are choosing communications services. Price
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Ofcom today published information about the main services offered by phone companies that can help consumers protect themselves against nuisance calls and compare any charges that may apply.
