[Matth]

On BT (where they charge for ACR, so on the main line, we just let the answering machine take it, and friends know to talk over it), there may be a difference between "The caller witheld their number" and "We do not have a number for this call".

There is a change in the quality of unwanted calls, from the occasional long-suffering telesales operator, to the current total **** of: silent calls, autodiallers, recorded garbage (very wary of "press 9" or whatever, though I thing the only exploit was related to a switchboard - otherwise it would be worth making an attempt to get to an agent and then wasting THEIR time for a long as possible).

They should make this "telephone spamming" ILLEGAL - unfortunately, the worst of this VERMIN seems to be outside the remit of TPS - specifically, for instance, random / sequential dialling that does not use a list, is not required to honour list-based exclusions.