AT&T and T-Mobile are now working together to stop spam calls from reaching you

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Last year, the FCC lit a fire under the phone carriers to start cracking down on spam calls. The implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN protocol that the major carriers agreed on is now starting to roll out, with calls between AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks the latest to join the authentication party.

That should result in a reduction in the plague of robocalls for users of those two networks.

AT&T and T-Mobile have started the roll-out of cross-network authentication

We had some 48 billion spammy robocalls last year as Americans, even though the automated systems are illegal to use. Call authentication like this won’t fix the problem on its own, but at least you’ll have more information when you’re deciding to pick up the phone or not.

• Calls between T-Mobile and Comcast, and AT&T and Comcast are already being authenticated
• Verizon only authenticates calls between users on its own network at present
• The FCC has given carriers the green light to block spam calls by default

This isn’t the end of robocalls though, just a way to reduce the amount between these two networks. The telcos have until the end of this year to get in cooperation mode and authenticate all calls on their networks, or the FCC might actually do something regulatory. Well, maybe, I mean what happens if the scammers use international networks instead?

What do you think? Will this actually do anything to keep spam calls down? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.