The short answer

Yes. The Telephone Preference Service describes itself as "the UK’s only official ‘Do Not Call’ register for landline and mobile numbers", and a mobile can be registered free, by text or online. For a business making marketing calls, a registered mobile is treated exactly like a registered landline: once it has been on the register for 28 days, an unsolicited sales call to it breaks the law.

How to register your mobile with the TPS

If you want marketing calls to your own mobile to stop, there are two routes, both run by the TPS and both free.

  • By text. Text "TPS" and your email address to 85095 from the mobile you want to register. The TPS says there is no charge to send the message or to receive its confirmation.
  • Online. Use the registration page at tpsonline.org.uk/register. It asks which type of line you are registering (residential, sole trader, partnership, limited company or PLC; the limited company and PLC options are for corporate subscribers, whose numbers go on the CTPS) and works for mobiles and landlines alike.

You only register once. In the TPS’s own words, "Once you’ve registered a number with the TPS, you won’t need to do it again." The legal protection starts 28 days after registration, though the TPS says you are "likely to notice a drop in telemarketers contacting you sooner than that".

Mobiles and the law on marketing calls

The rule sits in regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). Regulation 21(1)(b) bars unsolicited direct marketing calls where "the number allocated to a subscriber in respect of the called line is one listed in the register". Nothing in that wording separates mobiles from landlines. A number is either on the register or it is not.

The same regulation gives callers a grace period. Under regulation 21(3), a call is not a breach where the number "has been listed on the register for less than 28 days" before the call. That is why the TPS tells new registrants the legal requirement applies "after 28 days", and why businesses re-screen their lists on a 28-day cycle or faster. The two different 28-day figures are explained in the TPS 28-day rule.

Business mobiles, sole traders and the CTPS

Which register a mobile belongs on depends on who the subscriber is. PECR defines a subscriber as "a person who is a party to a contract with a provider of public electronic communications services". So the contract decides it, not who carries the phone.

  • A mobile on a limited company’s or PLC’s contract has a corporate subscriber, so if it is registered, it is on the Corporate TPS (CTPS) rather than the TPS. Regulation 26(1A) requires corporate subscribers to register in writing.
  • A sole trader’s mobile has an individual subscriber, because a sole trader is not a separate legal person. It goes on the TPS, even if it is the only business number they have.
  • Partnerships split by country: PECR lists "a partnership in Scotland" as a corporate subscriber, while other partnerships count as individuals.

For B2B callers the practical point is that a business contact’s mobile can sit on either register, so screening against the CTPS alone misses some of them. The edge cases are covered in sole traders and partnerships: TPS or CTPS.

Texts follow a different rule

TPS registration governs calls. Marketing texts fall under regulation 22, which covers "electronic mail", and PECR’s definition of electronic mail "includes messages sent using a short message service". To an individual subscriber, regulation 22(2) bars marketing by electronic mail unless the recipient "has previously notified the sender that he consents", subject to the soft opt-in in 22(3).

So whether a mobile is on the TPS has no bearing on texting it. If the subscriber is an individual (a personal mobile, or a sole trader’s), you need their consent or the soft opt-in before sending a marketing text, whether or not the number is registered. Mobiles on a company contract have a corporate subscriber, and regulation 22 does not apply to them.

Checking a mobile against the TPS

You can type any UK mobile into our free TPS checker, which looks it up in the TPS and CTPS register files we hold under our DMA licence as a list cleaner. It gives three checks a day without an account, or 25 with a free one. For a list of numbers, or for checking at the point a rep dials, the routes are compared in how to check if a number is on the TPS. Around 13.5 million numbers are on the TPS and 1.1 million on the CTPS; the breakdown is in the TPS register in numbers.

What the TPS does not stop

  • Recorded-message calls. Automated marketing calls fall under regulation 19, which needs the subscriber’s prior consent whether or not the number is on the TPS. Registering does not change that rule, and the rule applies to unregistered numbers too.
  • Scam calls. Regulation 21 puts the duty on organisations making marketing calls. Someone running a scam is already breaking the law and is not screening against the register, so registration will not filter them out.
  • Calls you agreed to. Under regulation 21(4), where a registered subscriber has told a caller they do not, for the time being, object to its calls, that caller may call them despite the register. They can withdraw that at any time.
  • Non-marketing calls. Regulation 21 covers calls "for direct marketing purposes", which PECR defines as the communication of "advertising or marketing material". A call that carries none, such as a delivery update on an order, is outside it.

This is a plain-English summary of the rules, not legal advice.

One-line answer

Yes, the TPS covers mobiles: register yours free by texting "TPS" and your email address to 85095, and if you make marketing calls, treat a registered mobile like any registered landline, off limits 28 days after it joins unless that person has told you that you may call.