Back in 2014, we launched Intelligent Call Rejection, a Simwood take on the traditional ACR service, which filtered out calls where Caller ID Data is invalid or missing, whether or not it is merely “Withheld” from the end-user. International and domestic calls are allowed, if their Caller ID is valid. Equally, without ACR, calls with valid caller ID that is simply Withheld would be allowed through.
Now, four years on, Ofcom have recognised that this is a sensible approach to reducing nuisance calls and mandated that this be provided by all providers where technically feasible to do so in General Condition 6
Where technically feasible, Regulated Providers must:
(a) take all reasonable steps to identify calls in relation to which invalid or non-dialable CLI Data is provided; and (b) prevent those calls from being connected to the called party, where such calls are identified.
It’s obviously been technically feasible for us to provide this service for over four years, so we will continue to do so. Therefore, effective as of 1st October, the option to configure ICR as an additional service will be removed from the portal and API.
Obviously, this makes it easy for our customers to comply with the revised General Conditions with respect to CLI, and applies equally to those using Simwood numbering as well as those Virtual Interconnect and Managed Interconnect customers that we host numbers for.
At a time when many in the industry are scrambling to comply with these new requirements, and implementing new processes or hardware to do so, we believe that we’re one step ahead of many here as part of our existing commitment to do what we can to combat misuse of the telephone system and our zero-tolerance position on nuisance calls.
