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Submitted via IRC for chromas

AT&T ramps up its fight against robocalls with Call Validation feature

The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have been trying, at least in theory, to stop the robocalling scourge from spreading for many years now, but even though a recent survey estimated a mind-blowing 200 million unwanted calls go through every single day in the US, the nation's major carriers are finally taking action against the thing that threatens to kill the enjoyment of using a mobile phone in this day and age.

Well, at least two of the "big four" American wireless service providers are making a concerted effort to clean their networks of spammers, scammers, and number spoofers, as AT&T follows T-Mobile's suit in implementing the SHAKEN/STIR standard to offer its customers a little more peace of mind when receiving a call from someone they don't know.

[...] Unfortunately, both Call Protect and Call Validation are currently only available on three high-end Android devices. Namely, Samsung's Galaxy S10 and S10+, as well as the LG V40 ThinQ. If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to do anything special to get the newly released feature enabled on the aforementioned smartphones. You will simply start seeing a green checkmark and the words "Valid number" on your handset's display when an incoming call is authenticated. That's a small step forward for one carrier and... an even as a whole.

Original Submission