Study Weighs “Accuracy” of Carrier Robocall Detection

A recent study weighed popular phone carriers against each other in how accurately each carrier detects robocalls and spoofed calls.

In the robocall context, the Mind Commerce study looked at how often the carrier identified a number that is “problematic” in order to determine accuracy. Of the major carriers, the study found that Verizon’s “Enhanced Caller Name ID” led the pack by detecting problematic numbers 93.6% of the time, followed T-Mobile’s “SCAM ID in Combination with Name ID” at 90.1% detection and AT&T Wireless’s “Call Protect” with 86.9% detection.

On the call spoofing category, Verizon far outweighed the other carriers on detection. According to the study, Verizon detected spoofed calls 98% of the time, followed by T-Mobile at 64% and AT&T Wireless at 60%.

insideARM Perspective

Those of us in the industry wear two hats. On one hand, we are consumers who want a solution to the volumes of robocalls we receive on our personal phones. On the other, we are members of legitimate businesses that get caught in the crossfire of the robocall blocking technology even though our businesses fall outside the scope of the problem.

Spoofed calls remain an issue the industry is on the lookout for, so it is encouraging to see that carriers are becoming better at detecting them. However, the robocall portion of this study shows the difficulty faced with this issue. The definition of “problematic” number is vague and casts an overbroad net that sweeps and incorrectly labels legitimate business calls as possible scams. 

This is a nuanced challenge that will continue for some time and insideARM will continue to montior it.