Over the last six months, Airtel Africa’s pioneering artificial intelligence (ai)- powered spam detection service, Spam Alert, detected more than 205 million spam SMS messages in 13 (thirteen) of its markets.
The Spam Alert Service, which is available to all subscribers at no cost, identifies and prefixes the SMS with “SPAM Alert” and provides real-time updates. The immediate impact is the elimination of the need to download additional applications to manage spam.
Airtel Africa has so far rolled out the service in 13 of its 14 markets, namely Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Malawi, Madagascar, DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, Chad and Niger. Seychelles will launch soon.
Overall, spam messages have been reduced by 12% since the launch of the Airtel Africa SPAM Alert service, with Nigeria recording the highest drop of 84%.
Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar said, “We are proud to pioneer an advanced tech solution powered by AI to tackle spam messages, which are a major concern in Africa as smartphone penetration increases. This free service demonstrates our commitment to consistently innovating to deliver an unmatched experience and safer network to our customers.”
Airtel Africa’s spam alert service uses AI to analyse and classify SMS messages as “Spam alerts” based on various parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns and real-time SMS frequency.
