AT&T and T-Mobile have come together to offer cross-network call authentication technology for its customers in the U.S. This will allow proper screening of robocalls and hopefully reduce the menace to a great extent. This tech makes use of the popular SHAKEN/STIR standard, which provides a prompt or notification prior to receiving a robocall. This is pretty much on par with third-party apps like Truecaller, Hiya etc.
What this also means is that customers on both AT&T and T-Mobile will soon see a “Caller Verified” badge when they receive a call from a legitimate user. If the badge is absent while receiving an incoming call, one can safely assume that it’s a robocall or a telemarketer.
This move by AT&T and T-Mobile has been long-awaited. While T-Mobile was the first to initiate the framework on its networks back in January this year, AT&T shortly followed suit by allowing calls to and from Comcast subscribers to be screened. This appears to be a result of the directive provided by FCC chairman Ajit Pai, asking all major networks to set up a technology using SHAKEN/STIR for call screening by the end of 2020.
While Sprint has already confirmed that it will roll out its version of SHAKEN/STIR by the second half of 2020, Verizon is expected to do so over the next few months. It’s important to note that while carriers can finally screen robocalls now, this method doesn’t completely eliminate such calls.
Here are some tips to help you block robocalls effectively regardless of the network you’re on.
Source: T-Mobile