If you annoy customers they are highly unlikely to use the services provided by companies.  The apparent complacency of the industry and the lack of willingness to act is only harming telemarketing as a whole.  In a way it is a classic case of individual companies apparently acting in their own self interest by maximising the efficiency of their telemarketing operation, but in doing so, undermining the collective interest of the industry and therefore the individual interest of each company within that industry.  Like the famous prisoners dilemma there is a telemarketers dilemma  – act responsibly and risk short term profits, act irresponsibly for short term gain but risk long term oblivion. 

All this is why we need stronger regulation – in the industry’s own interest – as well as the consumers.  Ofcom seems unwilling to use the powers that it has been given under the Communications Act.  Its leadership on the issue has been pitiful.  I recently met with representatives of BT who were asking me to put pressure on Ofcom to take firmer action (as indeed does the DMA action plan).  How often does a major multinational corporation and an industry body beg a regulator to tighten its grip – it shows how weak Ofcom has been.  
    
At present Ofcom will not take action against a company unless this has been instigated by an individual or an outside agency.  In the MKD case the investigation and resulting mildest of action was only taken up by Ofcom as a result of complaints made by a member of the public.  Although Ofcom can fine companies up to £5,000 for misuse of the telecommunications network they have never used this power even in the case of MKD Holdings.  Ofcom also has the ability to revoke licences, but again this has not been used in the legislation’s 6 year history.

The reason there are not more cases is because most members of the public are not interested in pursuing a case.  They just want to stop the silent calls.  So when they phone BT to complain what are they told?  Register with TPS.  Or if they go to BT’s website what does it say in big letters?  “Even one nuisance or malicious call is one too many “.  BT may believe that but the code of conduct says millions are not too many.  It then goes on to say the solution is to register with TPS. 
 
The current enforcement has been ineffective in offering a solution, what is required is a new and stronger partnership between the industry and regulator. 

The powers that are currently held by Ofcom need to be used more effectively in order to deter companies from flaunting the current legislation.  A company will know that the vast majority of customers will not pursue action against them and as the regulation stands this is an incentive for them to maximise their calling potential.  The DMA should not be recommending 5% as the acceptable rate of silent calls.  They shouldn’t even be recommending between 2 and 3% as in the action plan.  My contention is that the industry should calibrate its predictive dialling equipment to attempt to achieve a silent call rate of zero.  That is a tough target, perhaps even an unattainable one in practice.  But while the industry continues to believe it is acceptable to deliberately irritate its potential customers as a matter of policy – it will find itself fishing in a pool that is rapidly evaporating.