Verizon has just announced that it will offer free spam and robocall protection to its subscribers starting this March. The “Call Filter” service, which was previously available as a $3 add-on, will be offered for free to all Verizon customers with phones that support the features, including iPhones and Android phones. It’s about time: competing carriers T-Mobile and AT&T have been offering the same free spam filtering service for quite awhile.
You’ve probably already noticed, but preventing robocalls has been a difficult process because spammy callers have found ways to make spoof calls from local numbers, making it more likely that people will pick up the calls. In late 2018, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that carriers must adopt a new framework called STIR/SHAKEN by 2019, which visually alerts customers when they’re receiving spam calls.
Verizon says it has blocked nearly 1 billion spam calls to date, and it identified more than 300 million numbers associated with robocalls. The company plans to offer more information on how to sign up for the free service as the feature gets closer to launch.
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