AT&T, Comcast team up for plan to tackle robocalls

Craig Johnson | March 21st, 2019

Team Clark is adamant that we will never write content influenced by or paid for by an advertiser. To support our work, we do make money from some links to companies and deals on our site. Learn more about our guarantee here.

With the current state of unwanted calls at an all-time high, it’s safe to say that caller ID has lost its mojo.

That’s why it’s good news that AT&T and Comcast have announced that they will work together on ways to help their phone customers only receive verified calls.

Although they both have systems in place to reduce robocalls, the two companies are collaborating on a uniform authentication system that would verify callers between networks, AT&T said in a news release.

Shaken/STIR: AT&T, Comcast combine on system to verify calls

The new system, which is expected to debut later this year, utilizes the newly adopted Shaken/STIR protocol, which lets customers know whether a call is really coming from the number listed on caller ID.

Both AT&T and Comcast say the new method won’t totally stop robocalls or “spoof” calls, but their hope is that it greatly reduces nuisance and unwanted calls while restoring confidence in caller ID.

Here’s how the Shaken/STIR caller ID works

Phone customers can expect the Shaken/STIR process to work like this:

When you receive a call from a “spoofed” number, the call won’t go through because it will fail the Shaken/STIR Caller ID verification.

Calls that are legitimate will be marked as “verified” when the system confirms that it’s coming from an authenticated number. Those calls will be connected and can be answered accordingly.

What’s next?

In the the months ahead, other phone service providers will be conducting similar tests, according to AT&T. Until then, here are some call-blocking tools from the major phone carriers: