Comcast and T-Mobile have launched a new anti-Robocall tool. But that does not make much

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T Mobile (TMUS) and Comcast (CCZ) Xfinity announced on Wednesday that it would be the first telecom company to begin checking calls between its networks. They use a tool that will alert customers if a human call has not passed the incoming call – but that does not mean your phone will stop ringing as if nothing has happened. with automated calls. At least not yet.

Most major telecommunications companies have been involved in the development and testing of the new anti-call technology, called STIR / SHAKEN, which is slowly being deployed in the sector this year.

T-Mobile and Comcast are the first two companies to announce that they have selected a way to check calls between their networks, thus allowing a caller from a Xfinity home phone to be verified when calling. she calls her T-Mobile device, and vice versa. Verification badges will now appear to T-Mobile customers with certain types of smartphones and will soon be deployed on more devices. Comcast's verification badges will begin to appear later this year.

"In the coming weeks, we will be exchanging authenticated calls with more vendors in the industry as we come together to address this issue," said Eric Schaefer, Comcast's executive vice president of communications services, in a statement.

Most telephone service providers are also expected to deploy STIR / SHAKEN on their own networks during this year. But until other companies, especially wireless giants like AT & T (T) and Verizon (VZ), have also begun to verify calls, the receipt of an "authenticated" call will be quite rare and not very useful at first, according to Grant Castle, vice president of engineering at T-Mobile.

"But with time, as you are doing well, you will see that the vast majority of appeals are verified," he said. He added that plans are underway to create a third-party organization that will help carriers coordinate the verification process.

Improved call authentication will make it easier for customers to filter calls from robotic calls because these numbers will show up as "unverified". However, it will probably take longer before auto-dialer blocking is done more accurately, so your phone never rings.

The scary future of automated calls: numbers and voices you know
The objective of STIR / SHAKEN is to shoot down the bad actors who use a technique called "spoofing", which allows them to circumvent the identity of the caller and to give the impression that they call for a other number – even identical phone numbers possess.

Spoofing has long allowed bad actors to bypass regulators. And it has become difficult for authorities to determine which automated calls are illegal and which are spoofed for a legitimate reason, which may be the case when your pharmacist or school district calls you. Companies often resort to spoofing in order to hide the direct phone lines and leave the desired callback numbers.

Call verification could potentially help phone blocking tools and apps to better rank the bad guys in the package.

Most mobile phone companies currently offer such applications. But because of identity theft, none of them succeeds in eliminating unwanted calls.

Applications are mostly "shy attempts" to solve a complex problem, Castle said, but the industry is fully aware of the need to do better.

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