Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced on Monday it has upgraded its AI-powered spam detection tool to include alerts for spam calls and text messages originating from international numbers as well as domestic ones.
Airtel said its anti-spam tool has identified 27.5 billion calls – or 1,560 spam calls every second – since its launch in September 2024. Airtel also says its customers have seen a 16% decrease in spam calls in that time.
However, one side effect of cracking down on spam from domestic sources has resulted in spammers shifting to international networks to pump spam calls and messages into India. Airtel says it’s seen a 12% increase in overseas spam calls in the last six months.
“With the growing volume of spam traffic shifting to foreign networks, we have decided to expand our AI-powered tool to scan all SMS messages and phone calls originating from international numbers,” said Siddharth Sharma, director of marketing and CEO for Airtel’s Connected Homes unit. “Our dedicated team of engineers and data scientists will continue to refine and enhance our offerings, ensuring we stay ahead of any and all emerging threats.”
Meanwhile, Airtel said it has also upgraded the anti-spam tool to support more languages for its alerts, with nine vernacular languages now supported and more to come in the future. Customers can now choose from ten languages for receiving alerts, although the feature is only available for Android users.
