On 16 June Ofcom opened another own-initiative investigation into silent calls. This time it is looking at the following companies: Promote IT, Toucan Telecom, The Listening Company Ltd, ANT Marketing UK, Thompson Directories Ltd, Fax Information Services Ltd, Firestorm Marketing Ltd. More information here.

It is really simpler than it sounds.

First, you are NOT legally obliged to answer the telephone just because it rings, no matter who is calling you at home.

Second, lets make the realistic assumption that you have broadband internet, all your friends are online, you have a mobile phone, if they really want to talk to you they just text you or chat online and let you know they'll ring you on your landline (most calls landline to landline are free anytime you call up to an hour in the UK).

Third, do the following:

1) Dial a wrong number that you know does not exist (or an old phone number of yours that has been disconnected).

2) Tape the recording "beep beep beep the number you have dialed has not been recognized beep beep beep" and create a sound file with it repeating for 2 minutes or so.

3) Put that in your answering machine.

Be rest assured, all those annoying telemarking and whatever else calls share databases and won't bother dialing invalid numbers forever.  Once they get your recording enough times they'll stop calling you.

Of course you can sue them (as if you'd go to India to take them to court) or give your name and address out to make a formal complaint (sooner or later they may find a way to get that and start sending you paper mail as well) or forever complain and get upset.  But reality is, the £4.85 or equilavent of £1 a day person on the other end of the phone line will probably quit the job long before anyone remembers his or her name and you're hitting a brick wall.

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0866 numbers are not yet regulated in the UK because the calls originate abroad; the Information Commissioner is still looking into how to deal with them.  As far as the TPS, even if they find a way to include them numbers, all the overseas companies will claim is they were trying to contact a Mr Smith (who never existed) at your number.

My problem is that I live in an area where everyone has two or three part time jobs and has time off in the middle of the day. These calls usually happen at around lunchtime between 12noon and 2pm UK time in our area.

If I don't answer, they let the phone ring for half an hour (literally) before their computer terminates the call.  If I do answer (whether I say hello or nothing) then it takes 30 seconds for the call to hangup, and about 20 minutes later a different 0866 number calls.
Changing telephone number does not help as they are apparently targetting the entire exchange and will ring again sooner or later.

I consider that to be harrassment (and indeed in the USA it is illegal to "cause the phone to continuously ring" and that is rigidly enforced - but not in the UK).  I only managed to get rid of the calls using the answering machine trick above, and even then they ring 2-3 times a month.  The triple beep in the answering machine is what deters them.

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0866 is what comes up on the caller display;  nothing to do with 0844.  Calls showing this number originate from overseas (some say India, but definitely overseas and from a relatively non-modern network because you can hear the hissing on the line).   Examples are 0866 656 9890 and 0866 849 3243.

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Must be a funny area if "everyone" has 2 or 3 part time jobs and has time off in the middle of the day?  Where is this Peckham or deepest darkest Toxteth.

I work at home 5 days a week on a residential BT line and have never yet had a call from an 0866 number at any time.

You will actually find that the uk phone network disconnects any call after the line has been ringing for 2 or 3 minutes without answer but if you have a distorted sense of time that makes you think they ring for half an hour well that's clearly up to you.

Perhaps they target your area because IQ and income levels are such that people really believe that if they call an 0906 number costing them 2 or 3 quid that someone will then send them a 5 thousand pound prize.  On my exchange near Dorking their hit rate for call backs to their premium rate number would undoubtedly be very poor indeed - hence they seem to leave us alone.

If Telewest let your phone ring forever I suggest you complain to their Chief Executive and to Ofcom.

This is not something that BT allows to happen on its lines where calls are disconnected after 2 or 3 minutes of ringing unanswered.

There must be regulatory standards on such things.

One of the reasons that telecoms operating companies have been reducing the ringing period is because of the devices which have become available which use this period to make toll-free calls. By reducing this period the telcos have limited the potential for the fraudulent use of such devices which can work even with international calls.