What UK call-center rules (OFCOM) mean for dialers

OFCOM and UK telemarketing: the basics

The Office of Communications — Ofcom (UK) — is the UK's communications regulator, and its telemarketing rules cover outbound sales calling in ways that will feel familiar to US call centers. Calling-time restrictions, do-not-call obligations, and drop-rate limits all exist in the UK framework. But several specifics differ from what US operators are used to under FTC and FCC rules.

If you run campaigns that dial UK numbers, or if you are a UK-based operation setting up VICIdial for the first time, these differences are not minor. Getting them wrong carries enforcement risk from OFCOM.

Three areas where UK rules differ from the US

flowchart LR
  A[UK OFCOM Rules] --> B[72-hour drop lockout]
  A --> C[Company-wide drop rate option]
  A --> D[Dec 2015 AMD drop calculation]
  A --> E[TPS and CTPS filtering]
  B --> F[Drop Lockout Time field = 72]
  C --> G[Multiple Campaign Drop Rate Group]
  D --> H[Enable in System Settings AND Campaign]
  E --> I[Filter lists before dialing]

1. The 72-hour drop lockout. In the US, there is no mandatory waiting period before re-contacting someone whose call was dropped (abandoned). In the UK, you must not attempt to contact a customer within 72 hours of an abandoned call — a call where they were connected but had no agent to speak to. VICIdial has a Campaign Detail field called Drop Lockout Time specifically for this.
2. Company-wide drop rate calculation. US rules require Drop rate to be calculated per campaign. UK OFCOM permits a company to calculate the drop rate across all campaigns combined. This gives operations with multiple campaigns more flexibility in dial ratios while staying within the legal limit.
3. Revised drop calculation from December 2015. OFCOM changed how dropped calls are counted in December 2015. The new method uses a formula that accounts for the anticipated number of answering machine drops, based on the rate at which agents are dispositioning calls as answering machines. This is an optional calculation in VICIdial that must be enabled at both the system level and the campaign level.

TPS and CTPS: the UK do-not-call lists

The UK equivalent of the US national National DNC Registry comes in two forms. The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) covers individual consumers who have registered to opt out of unsolicited sales calls. The Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) covers businesses. Companies running auto-dialing campaigns into UK numbers must filter their lists against both registries before dialing.

Filtering works the same way as US DNC filtering in VICIdial: you load the TPS/CTPS data into your DNC list and apply it as a filter before leads enter the dialing queue. The underlying mechanism is identical; the data source is different.

What stays the same

Many OFCOM requirements mirror US FTC rules: limits on calling hours, requirements to identify the calling organization, and drop rate percentage caps. If your VICIdial setup is already correctly configured for FTC compliance, you are partway there for OFCOM — but not all the way. The three differences above require specific VICIdial configuration changes.

For a full breakdown of the VICIdial compliance framework across US and international regulations, see the compliance overview. The specifics of the 72-hour drop lockout and how to configure it are covered in the UK 72-hour drop-lockout rule.

If you need help getting your UK campaign configuration right, see our pricing page for managed setup and compliance configuration options.