TPS - The UK Telephone Preference Service

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Fax Preference Service (FPS) exist to reduce the number of unwanted (junk) phone calls that you get on a phone line by allowing you to register your number on an opt-out basis to say that you'd rather the telesales people left you alone, thanks very much.

This is a free service in the UK and has to be renewed / re-registered annually. It takes 28 days to take effect from when you confirm the registration. Once this is in place, it is illegal in the UK to call you with an unsolicited sales call. Companies who use direct marketing must check and respect the register and if they violate the UK's direct telemarketing rules, then you can complain and the company or individual responsible can be fined.

There are a couple of caveats to the rules, but generally 28 days after you've registered your numbers, you should find that if you've been plagued by time wasting unwanted calls then these will drop off noticeably.

To register visit the website http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html - and fill in the form there. Remember to list all your company phone numbers - IP / VOIP phones, analogue phones, ISDN lines (base numbers and DDI ranges) . You can also (and should) also list your staff's mobile phone numbers (if they are personal phones rather than business phones check no one has any objections to theirs being registered first - 99% should thank you for it though). For mobiles it stops you getting PPI and compensation claim calls and the likes - through voice (human or robot) and also works for text (SMS) messages. All of these calls can be annoying and distracting and divert our valuable time from more productive activities.

If you get unwanted (spam) SMS text messages to your UK mobile phone you can (and should) forward these to 7726 on any network (Vodafone, O2, EE etc.) and they are then investigated and traced / blocked / prosecuted (and the good news is that companies are now being actively fined big money for abuse here so there is more disincentive to continue to abuse people). An easy way to remember the 7726 code is that it spells 'SPAM' on your phone's numeric keypad. Even if a spam SMS message comes anonymously the networks can trace them.

FPS - Fax Preference Service:

The Fax Preference Service is just like the TPS but, as you might guess, applies to fax lines and machines. You visit the website and register your fax line(s) and confirm as for the phone preference service. This stops junk faxes that waste your time, paper and ink / toner and tie up your line. Registration is at http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/fps/

Many companies are at the point now of retiring their fax machines and terminating their fax lines. Here at Onega we maintain just one fax machine & line for the odd time it is needed, but this is increasingly rare. Do ask yourself when you last used your fax machine; if you have to scratch your head for long, do call us about getting it cut off. If don't already have one, scanners are now very good and many copiers or multi function fax / print / scan / copiers scan better than they fax. Sending a scan as an email attachment is cheaper (especially internationally) than a fax, as well as clearer.

How Onega can help:

For Onega's IT & Telecoms support clients, we can help make sure that you are registered and, with your authority, can also do the admin of registering and renewing TPS and FP registrations for you. We're not just about fixing computers, we're about making your working experience better and getting rid of some of these junk calls is a good win for all :-)

For more information you can visit:

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/tackling-nuisance-calls-and-messages/marketing-texts/
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html
http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/fps/

And, as always, please feel free to get in touch: http://www.onega.net/contact