A leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, Airtel Africa Plc, has increased its range of Value-Added Services (VAS) for customer with the introduction of a ground-breaking artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Spam Alert Service.
The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service will be available to all subscribers of the GSM provider at no cost. It gives real-time alerts for suspected spam SMS messages and malicious weblinks sent to Airtel smartphone and feature phones.
In addition, it filters all SMS through a proprietary dual-layer protection: one layer at the network level and the other at the IT systems level, processing over 1.5 billion messages in 2 milliseconds.
At the launch of this service on Thursday in Lagos, the chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Aminu Maida, commended Airtel for this innovation, saying, “The Airtel Spam Alert Service is of obvious benefit to the entire sector.”
“Security is one of the major challenges to subscribers and such an innovative service from Airtel helps us tackle this issue while boosting consumer confidence,” he declared.
The Minister for Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, also praised Airtel for its continued investment in Nigeria’s technology ecosystem and for specifically investing in a service that is geared towards enhancing online security for millions of Nigerians.
“As we expand our digital infrastructure and prioritise digital literacy, solutions like Airtel AI Spam Alert Service will enforce the importance of leveraging artificial intelligence, not only for security but also for economy empowerment,” he stated.
On his part, the chief executive of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Dinesh Balsingh, said, “Enhancing customer experience is our foremost priority, and we are proud to launch Africa’s first AI powered spam alert solution.
“This is a gamechanger for the telecoms industry in Africa and as we move forward, we will continue to address customer challenges through proactive tech-driven solutions.
“We are proud to launch this innovative initiative in Nigeria, our largest market in Africa, while the other countries will launch in the coming months.”
Airtel explained that it came up with this service, which does not require additional application downloads, as part of its efforts to protect its customers.
The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service, which is automatically activated for all Airtel customers in Nigeria, would be subsequently rolled out across other countries where Airtel Africa operates.
According to research from Quartz, as of 2019, nine of the top 20 countries in the world with the highest spam rates are in Africa.
With Africa’s smartphone penetration on the increase, spam messages have become a widespread issue, targeting an expanding demographic of unsuspecting individuals.
Hundreds of thousands of mobile users often receive unsolicited SMS or calls claiming to be from their network provider or government and offering irresistible benefits.
In these communications, users are asked to click on links and provide personal information to claim the benefits. This action allows the scammer to gain access to users’ security information, which can then be used to commit fraud.
In response, Airtel Africa developed this innovative AI-powered solution that classifies suspicious SMS messages as Suspected SPAM.
Without reading specific SMS messages, the AI analyses in real-time over 250 parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns such as SMS frequency and geographical spread of targets.
