AT&T and Comcast team up to fight spam and prevent robocalling fraud

Following FCC's (Federal Communications Commission) warning to all US networks operators to offer customers a method of fighting robocalls, carriers have taken it behind the scenes to develop and deploy solutions that would prevent spam calls.

Verizon announced back in January that it will offer free spam alerting and blocking tools to all customers beginning March. Today, another major carrier confirmed that it's very close to offering customers an easy solution to prevent spam calls.

AT&T and Comcast announced they have exchanged authenticated calls between two separate providers' voice networks, which paves the way for the companies to offer authentication on calls between networks to customers later this year.

The goal of the test conducted by AT&T and Comcast is to offer consumers a solution that will allow them to see verified calls not only from callers using the same provider but from other participating providers as well.

The solution uses the so-called SHAKEN/STIR protocol, an industry first for calls between separate providers. The protocol lets customers know that an incoming call is indeed coming from the number listed on the caller ID display.

The new protocol prevents calls that are illegally “spoofed” (or show a faked number) to go through and will mark them as unverified. The new solution is expected to be released later this year, but AT&T provides customers with additional ways to fight unwanted robocall.

AT&T customers can use AT&T Call Protect, an app that can be downloaded on the phone. This is also available from the account settings on myAT&T, but downloading the app will also allow you to create a personal blocked number list.

If you own a traditional home phone, you have the option to block up to 10 callers by pressing *60 after you receive an unwanted call. Also, AT&T Phone customers can take advantage of Digital Phone Call Protect by heading to their account settings in myAT&T and turning it on. Just like traditional home phone owners, they can block up to 100 callers by pressing *61 after the unwanted call.