Silent Call - The No Agent Available (NAA) Message

The No Agent Available (NAA) Message

One solution to silent calls is for marketing organizations to play a recorded message to the consumer explaining why the call was silent and why no agent was available. The industry, led by the DMA, resisted this for a long time because it was assumed that it would be termed illegal under article 19 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PERC):

"Use of automated calling systems 19. - (1) A person shall neither transmit, nor instigate the transmission of, communications comprising recorded matter for direct marketing purposes by means of an automated calling system except in the circumstances referred to in paragraph (2)."

(Further guidance on the PERC 2003)

However, after extensive campaigning from a consumer called David Hickson the industry reviewed its position and started to further investigate the matter.

A private consulting firm contacted the information commissioner on 13 July 2005 and got confirmation that a NAA message is acceptable, on the condition that the message itself does not contain any marketing information. On 25 July 2005, this consulting firm then released a framework to help call centres implement the NAA message, entitled Voluntary Dialing Code.

However, many believed that even if an NAA message was legal in terms of the PERC, OFCOM could still find that it was persistent misuse.

On 17 August, MP John Hemming received confirmation from OFCOM that usage of the NAA message would not be termed a persistent misuse, and there is no widespread belief that OFCOM will conclude that the six companies it is currently investigating should stop making silent calls and use the information message instead.

Interestingly, OFCOM did not indicate what quantity of NAA is acceptable. It is likely that most people will work to 5%, however some dishonest companies are likely to make a high quantity of NAA calls in the same way they made a high quantity of silent calls. If this occurs, then the NAA message will become as much of a nuisance as silent calls are. The only solution to this would be for either OFCOM to issue guidance on the acceptable level (and then prosecute those who go above this level), or for the government to introduce new legislation. Either way, this is an area that is extremely difficult to police.

On 18 August the DMA pledged to update its code (many believe the updates will be identical to the points the Voluntary Dialing Code). No update has as yet been released and the Voluntary Code remains the only framework in existence.