T-Mobile US has launched a new, free robocall blocking service for its users. “Scam Shield” makes use of the STIR/SHAKEN framework for call authentication to help users weigh whether or not to answer a given call. T-Mobile US will start the service on July 24, and CEO Mike Sievert said that it is T-Mo’s first robocall service that extends to both Metro by T-Mobile users as well as Sprint subscribers, along with T-Mobile US subs.
T-Mobile US also mentioned that the Sprint and T-Mo will unify under the T-Mobile brand in retail nationwide on August 2.
Sievert cited the increasing number of COVID-19 related robocall scams, which often prey on people’s fear and financial worries, as one of the motivating factors in the launch, as well as in making the service free.
“This pandemic created a perfect storm,” Sievert said in a video announcement that featured actor Anthony Anderson of the television show Black-ish. “They see COVID-19 as a huge opportunity.” In addition, he pointed out the delayed deadline to file U.S. taxes was this week, and a favorite tactic of scammers is to claim that they are from the Internal Revenue Service — complete with caller ID spoofing — to convince people to hand over financial information.
Sprint and T-Mobile US had been cooperating on cross-carrier anti-robocall efforts for some time. The two had announced in February that they had deployed cross-carrier STIR-SHAKEN number verification across their networks. T-Mobile US in particular has been at the forefront of STIR/SHAKEN deployment, as the first to announce readiness for the standards in late 2018 and then the first implementer, with its Caller Verified offering launching last year at this time on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9.
STIR/SHAKEN, or Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (SHAKEN), is a framework for ensuring the authenticity of a given call—that it is actually coming from the number and/or caller ID which is displayed and not being spoofed, which is a common tactic for unwanted and/or malicious spam calls.
T-Mobile US execs also claimed that their approach to robocall identification and blocking is better than similar services offered by their competitors.
“Our network is the most advanced in the industry and built with modern technology,” said Delan Beah, SVP of core network and services engineering, in the announcement video. “We analyze every call behavior, so it doesn’t matter if it’s 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G or even Wi-Fit. It doesn’t matter which phone you’re using.” She went on to say that competing carrier networks “have legacy infrastructure and that only protects people with certain technologies and only when they have the right phone or the right app.” T-Mobile US claims to have built its anti-robocall tech into its core network and that it is using artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and “patented technology” to block calls.
Beah cited a white paper (pdf) from analyst firm Global Data, which compared the call blocking services offered by the three nationwide carriers (the research was commissioned by T-Mobile US). In the paper, Global Data says that it recently tested operator-offered robocalling solutions from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile over four weeks. The testing focused on the services’ ability to identify and alert a customer of calls that were considered likely to be spam, fraudulent/scam, or telemarketing. Global Data, both independently and in cooperations with T-Mobile US robocalling solution vendor First Orion, analyzed 205 incoming calls, most of which were in one of those three categories, plus other calls generated for testing purposes. That testing of the operators’ premium robocall-blocking options showed that T-Mo’s solution was around 30% more effective at both identifying and blocking telemarketing and scam/spam calls.
Results from the other two carriers were not distinguished by name (they were referred to as Operators A and B).
Sievert cited numbers saying that Americans get 410 billion unknown calls every day. While he acknowledged that not answering any calls from unrecognized numbers is the tactic most people use to deal with robocalls, he pointed out that sometimes that means missing calls that they actually wanted. Additionally, he said, people not answering calls is hindering the work of contact tracers to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“Contact tracers can’t get people to answer calls from an unknown number,” he said.
