AT&T And Comcast Team Up To Fight Robocalls

Robocalls are a big problem in the United States and people are increasingly calling on the stakeholders involved to take concrete steps against them. AT&T and Comcast are taking a step in the right direction by announcing a partnership to combat robocalls. AT&T says that this partnership will strive to ensure an exchange of authenticated calls between the two providers’ voice networks, adding that this may be the first partnership of its kind in the country.

As a result of this partnership, AT&T and Comcast will be able to offer authentication on calls between networks to their customers later this year. This leaves the door open for customers to start seeing verified calls not only from those who use the same provider but also from other participating providers.

Tests have already conducted by these two providers between the AT&T Phone digital home service and Comcast’s Xfinity Voice home phone service. The tests were conducted on consumer networks and not in a lab on special equipment.

The system was able to successfully authenticate and verify calls using the SHAKEN/STIR protocol. It lets consumers know that an incoming call really is coming from the number that they see on the caller ID display. This will help prevent people from being tricked into picking up robocalls from spoofed numbers. It won’t end robocalls entirely but it’s a start.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: AT&T, comcast