Which wireless giant does the best job of blocking robocalls? A new study from industry analysis firm Mind Commerce gives us the answer. Verizon came out on top, blocking unwanted robocalls nearly 94% of the time. The two other companies studied, T-Mobile and AT&T, were close behind. T-Mobile made the right decision 90.1% of the time, while AT&T came in third, at 86.9%.
Verizon Wins Robocall Blocking Test
Verizon’s robocall blocking techology, called Enhanced Caller Name ID, was also better at identifying spoofed numbers, which have been disguised or switched for ones in your area code. Verizon’s solution was able to figure out number spoofing in 98% of cases. T-Mobile (which has dubbed its technology Scam ID) and AT&T (with Call Protect), performed significantly worse, at 64% and 60% respectively.
How did Mind Commerce study the issue? Easy. They placed robocalls to test phones through each telecom provider, using commonly-available robocalling technology. To perform the study, Mind Commerce used what they called “problem numbers,” ones that were either invalid or hadn’t been allocated to phones yet.
Don’t use any of these telecom providers? Don’t worry. Sprint and US Cellular have implemented technology that’s almost identical to what Verizon, the contest’s winner, is using.
Robo-Blocking Tech Comes At A Price
Unfortunately, the best of these solutions isn’t free. Verizon’s Enhanced Caller Name ID costs $2.99 per month, per line, along with some data charges.
A basic version of AT&T’s Call Protect is free to existing customers, but the Plus version, which features a reverse number lookup function and customizable call blocking, is $3.99 per month.
Paired with Scam Block, which actually blocks spam calls, rather than just identifying them, T-Mobile’s Scam ID is included in postpaid plans already, so it’s essentially free for existing T-Mobile customers.
FCC Empowers Telecom Companies To Find Robocall Solution
In mid-November 2017, the Federal Communications Commission gave telecom companies a new power: block robocalls at the source. Before that decision, telephone providers weren’t allowed to sift through your calls before you received them, but in the face of billions of annoying, maddening and unwanted robocalls every year, the government decided to loosen the rules.
