The AT & T blocked blocking extension will not block spam calls if you do not pay more.

AT & T announced yesterday that it would add "automatic fraud blocking and alerts of suspected spam calls" on mobile phone lines at no additional cost, but the carrier still imposes limits on blocking Spam calls unless customers pay extra.

"New mainstream AT & T Mobility lines will come with the automated anti-call service, and millions of existing AT & T customers will automatically have it added to their accounts in the coming months," he said. announced the announcement of AT & T.

Despite this change, customers will still have to manually add unwanted phone numbers to block lists or pay $ 4 per month to send all suspected spam calls to voicemail. This is just an extension of AT & T's Call Protect service, which includes a free basic level and a paid level with automatic blocking of spam calls.

Call Protect has been available since 2016, but only if customers have subscribed to it. The difference now is that Call Protect will be added to AT & T phone lines automatically.

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission decided to let telephone companies block automated calls by default, even when consumers did not choose phone call blocking services. Operators can activate the blocking of phone calls "as long as their customers are informed and have the option of not participating in the blocking," said the FCC at the time.

AT & T stated that the FCC vote was what allowed the carrier to extend call protection to users without waiting for their membership. The FCC's decision "specifies that call blocking tools may be offered by telephone service providers on an" opt-out "basis. AT & T said. "This means that we can automatically provide the service unless you refuse, instead of asking you to download an application or access your settings to activate it."

Call Protect is not available for AT & T prepaid customers, but AT & T told Ars that it will be added automatically to "most postpaid HD voice lines" in the months to come. to come up. Customers will be notified by SMS when the service will be added. If you do not want to wait, AT & T offers you to download the AT & T Call Protect application or activate Call Protect in myAT & T account settings.

No automatic spam blocking

As we mentioned before, the service does not automatically block all unwelcome calls. Note that the AT & T announcement promised "an automatic chock for fraud and alerts for suspected spam calls", but not an automatic blocking of spam calls. Calls classified by AT & T in the "fraud" category do not ring your phone, but in the "spam" category. will ring your phone despite a warning.

Fraudulent calls, of course, are those in which AT & T suspects that the caller is trying to defraud the user. On the other hand, "Spam calls are calls that a customer may consider to be a nuisance, but that are subjective to each customer," AT & T told us. AT & T's Call Protect website says in addition that "suspected spam may include service messages and / or other authorized calls". AT & T indicates that it identifies fraud and spam calls "through data analysis and network blocking, as well as through customer reporting".

AT & T customers have two ways to block spam. The first way is heavy but free, and the second is $ 4 a month, but automatically sends spam calls to voicemail.

The simplest method is to create a personal blocking list using the basic version of AT & T's Call Protect service. But this requires the manual addition of unwanted numbers. IPhone and Android phones have built-in call blocking features that work anyway regardless of your carrier.

For $ 4 a month, the premium version of AT & T Call Protect adds "Custom Call Controls", an option to automatically send suspected spam calls to voicemail. Call Protect Plus also includes an enhanced caller ID that identifies the name and location of the caller.

The FCC vote in June did not force operators to offer call blocking for free, even though Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had urged the Republican majority to impose free blocking of blocked calls.

AT & T has announced that it will continue to offer the Call Protect Plus premium service and that it has not promised any changes that would block spam in the free layer. "The Call Protect Plus service will still be available, but we will have more to share in the coming months," AT & T told us.