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By Gemma Simpson, 31 January 2007 12:40

NEWS

The Carphone Warehouse has been fined £35,000 by Ofcom for making excessive silent calls during a three month period last year.

Carphone Warehouse is one of four companies to be rapped by the telecoms regulator for "causing annoyance to consumers" with silent calls - where an automated call centre system rings someone but the line is silent when answered.

Silent calls can occur when automated call centre system generate more calls than the available call centre agents can manage.

Companies and fines resulting from Ofcom's silent call investigation:

♦ Space Kitchens: £45,000
♦ Bracken Bay Kitchens: £40,000
♦ Carphone Warehouse: £35,000
♦ Toucan: £32,500

The companies have been fined for their conduct in the wake of Ofcom's March 2006 ruling that silent calls should account for no more than three per cent of all outbound calls in a 24 hour period.

The Ofcom investigation found some or all of these four companies had repeatedly exceeded the three per cent limit, with the rate reaching more than 20 per cent in some cases, for the period between April and July 2006.

A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse said the company is now fully compliant with Ofcom's silent calls regulations and it accepts the watchdog's findings relating to the three month period last year.

The severity of each fine was determined by factors including the steps taken by each company to reduce the rate of silent calls, and the degree of unnecessary inconvenience, annoyance and anxiety to consumers from the nuisance calls.

The maximum financial penalty Ofcom could impose is £50,000 per notification.

The regulator contacted the four companies in November last year after concluding there were "reasonable grounds" to believe each had engaged in the persistent misuse of the telecoms network.