Airtel Africa’s Spam Alert Service Detects over 205m SMS in 6 Months 

Emma Okonji

More than 205 million spam SMS messages were detected by Airtel Africa’s pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered spam detection service in the last six months, the company has said..

The Spam Alert Service, it said, was deployed in 13 countries where Airtel is operational, Nigeria inclusive.

“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,” he said.

According to the telecoms company,  during the period under review, Kenya recorded the highest spam volume with 68m million messages flagged followed by Tanzania and Zambia with 47m and 33m, respectively.  

Speaking about the development, 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.”