BT Halo 950000

A phone that blocks cold-callers

How often do you receive unwanted phone calls on your landline? It may even be registered with the Telephone Preference Service (see www.snipca.com/22183), which is supposed to stop that sort of thing, but doesn’t... not entirely. Cold-callers may include foreign call centres, pre-recorded advertising messages, ‘surveys’ (permitted by TPS) and machines that just hang up on you. You might even have a phone number that’s similar to a local taxi firm or takeaway.

Halo, BT’S latest call-blocking landline phone, aims to end nuisance calls by a simple but effective method. It can also work with your smartphone to make life more convenient. In fact, at a time when some people are switching entirely to mobile phones, it could be a good reason to keep your landline.

The Halo incorporates a standard answering machine, but also has the ability to screen calls more actively using Bt’s’s Truecall Guardian system. To make full use of it you’ll need Caller ID on your line, which costs ts £1.75 a month as part of the optional Privacy plan if you have a BT line and pay monthly, or comes free if you pay BT line rentaltal annually. Some rival providers, including sky and Talktalk offer Caller ID free of charge, while others, such as Virgin Media charge a small fee.

When someone callsls you, the Halo detects theireir number and checks it against your list of contacts. If it matches someone, the phone rings, its screen shows who’s calling, and you can answer. If the number is not recognised, the Halo silently answers the call and asks the caller to state their name. Now it rings, and when you pick up, it plays you the caller’s name andd lets you choose whether to answer, block this person, or send the call to the answeringswering machine.

It’s well thought out, with extra options to deal with whole categories of numbers, such as international calls or phone boxes. There’s even a ‘do not disturb’ mode that prevents the phone ringing unless the caller is on your ‘VIP’ list. We tried it on a line that normally gets dozens of cold calls a day, and it went blissfully quiet. Occasionally, a genuine caller might be put off by the recorded message, but cold callers definitely will be.

The Halo phone can sit on the base either way up. The rear (see image below) looks less cluttered. On the front (see main image), the number buttons light up and are moulded in the shape of the digits, so you can identify them by touch as well as sight. The colour screen makes options fairly easy to understand, although we often wonder why ma nu fact ur manufacturers insist on cramming in lots of tiny text and icons. It’s not a touchscreen, andnd with two so soft keys plus a joypad and an ‘OK’ button, the whole thing could have been simpler. We did like the ability to link to a smartphone, or even two. paired wirelessly via Bluetooth, each can upload its contacts to the Halo, a quick way to fill in all yyour family and friends ends. And as lo long as your mobilele phone is sitting within 10 metres of the base (we found this included ev everywhere within a two-storey house) you ca can also use the Halo to make and receive calls on your mobile phone. It do doesn’t save you any money, but means you can make all your calls from one phone. Furthermore, its long, rounded shape is much more comfortable to hold than a slab-like smartphone.

The Halo’s official price is £100, which is pretty expensive. But we found it for £68 on Amazon (for one handset; £100 for two). That’s around the same price as rival phones that lack these special call-blocking features.

Keep nuisance callers at bay, and pair it with your mobile phone to make calls