As word-spotting systems spread, call-centre training schools have started coaching students in gaming the system so they look good under the additional scrutiny.
"The problem stems from the way that the fixed internet has been designed, " said Prof Rahim Tafazolli, director of Surrey University's Centre for Communications Systems Research.
Silent calls are caused by automated systems that dial numbers even when call centre operators are not available.
South Africa's Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and the Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS) hosted the first in a series of workshops for scientists and journalists.
"This research paints a vivid picture of the range of challenges that are faced by older and disabled people and will play a crucial role in ensuring their needs are placed front and centre of plans to improve our payment systems, " said Stephen Locke, a director of the Payments Council.
But the other lesson from countries with federal or quasi-federal constitutions like the one Britain is giving itself is that such systems provoke decades of tug-of-war between the centre and the regions.
The Millennium Stadium is a brand-new structure from top to bottom, but Centre Court is 80 years old, and lacks the ventilation systems of modern stadia.
The index, compiled by Mercer and the Australian Centre for Financial Studies, attempts to compare the widely varying systems of the countries in three broad areas: adequacy, sustainability and integrity.
Microsoft has blamed an overheating data centre for a 16-hour shutdown of its Outlook and Hotmail systems.
It has its own new counter-terrorism centre, but it has focused largely on setting up double-check systems to see that material is genuine and assessments are challenged.
The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre announced this week that it is to conduct independent trials of tracking systems and other advanced security devices to see how effective they are.
Silent calls occur when automated calling systems used by call centres for telemarketing, market research and debt collection generate more calls than the available call centre agents can manage.
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