AT&T Is Now Blocking Robocalls by Default, a First for Cell Phone Providers

Nothing gets under the skin quite like robocalls, those irritating and persistent attempts to sell questionable services and perpetuate moneymaking scams. A recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling finally paved the way for cell phone carriers to block the calls by default, rather than requiring consumers to opt into a blocking service to stop them.

Now, AT&T is doing exactly that. But if consumers want to block all robocalls, they’ll still have to pay a little extra.

AT&T just announced an expansion of its Call Protect service that will automatically block robocalls suspected to be fraudulent free of charge. Users are also free to manually block individual numbers of known spam callers. But if a consumer wants to automatically block all robocalls, even those from legitimate businesses, it will cost an additional $4 a month.

Call Protect was previously an opt-in feature: Users had to change their phone settings in order to take advantage of it. Due to the FCC ruling, AT&T can now activate Call Protect on all phones.

The benefit is expected to be available to all new AT&T service sign-ups, with existing users added in the coming months. If you don’t want to wait, you can download Call Protect as an app or turn it on via your AT&T account.

While AT&T is the first carrier to make the blocking feature a default, other cell phone providers offer similar functionality. T-Mobile’s Scam Block service blocks likely spam calls, while Verizon’s Call Filter and Sprint’s Premium Caller ID apps perform essentially the same function.

It’s expected robocalls will continue to face an uphill battle in an effort to reach consumers. The FCC also mandated that providers verify calls at the network level before reaching the consumer using a framework known as SHAKEN/STIR, or Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs and the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited standard. Clunky? Maybe. But the standard allows for carriers to catch suspected spam or fraud calls before they reach the consumer. All cell phone providers must implement it before the end of the year.

While nothing is likely to ever completely eliminate robocalls, at least we're making progress.