Bharti Airtel Ltd. said on Wednesday that the company will launch India’s first AI-powered spam detection service which will go live for all its customers starting Thursday at no additional cost. The service, in a bid to rival Sweden-based global spam detection app Truecaller, will send real-time alerts to customers to help them filter out suspected spam calls and SMSes. Airtel Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal has expressed confidence that the service can pip Truecaller, among other similar solutions. “This tool will not only help customers protect themselves against dusting calls but also prevent a whole lot of possible scams and frauds,” he has said. In another development, the service is going to get automatically activated as a default feature for Airtel users without any need for app download.
The AI-powered tool has been in development for over a year and is designed with a dual-layer protection system. Every call and SMS are analyzed by passing them through two filters-one at the network layer, the other at the IT systems layer. According to Vittal, the system processes more than 1.5 billion messages and 2.5 billion calls per day, detecting 100 million spam calls and 3 million spam SMSes per day. All this processing in real time helps protect customers from spam effectively. Airtel has reiterated its commitment to ensuring customer security and has pledged to keep users safe with its advanced AI-powered solution.
It also alerts users about potentially malicious links they receive through SMS by checking those links in real-time against a centralized database of blacklisted URLs. Airtel says it’s working to extend the service beyond its 387 million smartphone users to also include feature phone users. To avoid the choking of genuine business calls, Airtel is ready to share data of bonafide business calls with fellow operators and is prepared to share its spammer database with the regulator for penal action,” he said. However, Vittal pointed out that spam emanating from OTT apps like WhatsApp was beyond its service control for which regulatory intervention is required to address this emerging issue.
It also alerts users about potentially malicious links they receive through SMS by checking those links in real-time against a centralized database of blacklisted URLs. Airtel says it’s working to extend the service beyond its 387 million smartphone users to also include feature phone users. To avoid the choking of genuine business calls, Airtel is ready to share data of bonafide business calls with fellow operators and is prepared to share its spammer database with the regulator for penal action,” he said. However, Vittal pointed out that spam emanating from OTT apps like WhatsApp was beyond its service control for which regulatory intervention is required to address this emerging issue.
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