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By Monica MUEMA
More than 205 million spam SMS messages were detected by Airtel Africa’s pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered spam detection service, Spam Alert in 13 (thirteen) of its markets over the last 6 months.
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 with the immediate impact being 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.
During the period under review, Kenya recorded the highest spam volume with 68 million messages flagged followed by Tanzania and Zambia with 47m and 33m, respectively.
Overall, there has been a 12% reduction in spam messages 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 in tackling spam messages that are a major concern in Africa as smartphone penetration increases. This free service is yet another demonstration of our commitment to consistently innovate 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 ALERT” based on various parameters, including the sender’s usage patterns and SMS frequency in real time.