Carriers advance customer protection methods against Robocalls
Companies Sprint and T-Mobile have announced that they are delivering STIR/SHAKEN number-verification across their networks. This is a critical move in the industry’s ongoing fight to prevent unwelcome scam and spam calls. The new anti-robocalling feature is now available for T-Mobile and Sprint customers and will provide users with much-needed peace of mind. Calls from the Sprint network to the T-Mobile network (and vice versa) will come from a number that is listed on their caller ID display to ensure they are not being spoofed.
“We’re in an arms race with these scammers, and we’ve got to join forces as an industry to keep all wireless customers protected,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “We were first to announce readiness for STIR/SHAKEN, first to implement Caller Verified, and today, we lead the industry with the most cross-network STIR/SHAKEN partnerships to keep consumers better protected. T-Mobile will keep innovating and delivering on the frontlines in the battle against unwanted calls, and we won’t stop.”
”While all carriers compete fiercely in the marketplace, we all agree that the industry-wide plague of robocalls and scammers must be tackled arm-in-arm with other carriers as we put the latest technology to work to help protect our customers,” said Sprint CEO Michel Combes. “STIR/SHAKEN is one tool among many that Sprint is utilizing in a multi-year anti-robocalling development program to improve our customers’ experience.”
Work is already well underway with additional providers, Sprint’s collaboration with T-Mobile is one of several roll outs of STIR/SHAKEN technology to advance protection from robocalls and scammers for Sprint customers. Sprint also offers its customers Sprint Call Screener Basic. This is a free service that can identify unwanted and malicious calls, also permitting users to block them. Furthermore Sprint offer a feature-rich Sprint Call Screener Plus premium service for an additional cost. In addition to the services provided by the free service, Sprint Call Screen Plus also allows customers to see a texter’s name or a caller’s name, city and state – even from those not listed in contacts. It then identifies, blocks, and reports calls that are lower-risk – but are still a nuisance, categorizing the incoming calls as spam, robocalls or fraud calls and then reports an individual phone number. Finally, it keeps a history of blocked and risky numbers.
The FCC has recommended STIR/SHAKEN standards to digitally ensure that a call is in fact from the number displayed on Caller ID. The acronym stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (SHAKEN). STIR/SHAKEN, along with other tools such as the use of reasonable analytics, is key to the ongoing battle against unwanted robocalls and fraud.