Telecoms regulator Ofcom has chastised internet service provider TalkTalk over complaints of persistent silent calls, and warned that it could slapped with a fine of up to £2 million for harassing the customers.

Automated systems in call centers, called diallers that are used to generate & attempt to connect calls, produce silent calls when there is a lack of agents to handle all of the connected calls.

Last year, Ofcom received more than nine thousand complaints about silent calls. Following several complaints, Ofcom launched a probe and found that TalkTalk made silent calls to its customers in February and March this year.

According to regulator guidelines, call centres using diallers are supposed to prevent a call being silent by playing an information message in case a call is abandoned.

On the other hand, TalkTalk claimed that the silent calls were caused by a South African company and a Britain-based sales agency whith which it worked earlier in 2011.

TalkTalk has been ordered to respond to the allegations by the middle of November. It has also been asked to make sure that the problem is not repeated. If TalkTalk doesn’t take sufficient steps to curb the problem, it could face a fine of up to £2 million.