Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, has today in Nigeria launched a ground-breaking artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Spam Alert Service, which will be available to all its subscribers at no cost.
This unprecedented service, which offers Airtel smartphone and feature phone customers real-time alerts for suspected spam SMS messages, requires no additional application downloads and is automatically activated for all Airtel customers. Starting from Nigeria, it will subsequently roll 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 has developed an 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.
The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service is designed to filter 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.
Additionally, the software alerts customers to malicious weblinks received via SMS. For this purpose, a centralized database of blacklisted URLs is maintained, and by scanning every SMS in real time the AI system can warn users against accidentally clicking on suspicious links.
Speaking at the launch of the Airtel AI Spam Alert Service in Lagos, Dinesh Balsingh, Airtel Nigeria’s managing director and chief executive officer, 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.”
Dr. Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister for Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, who was also present at the launch, commended 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 said.
In his remarks, Dr Aminu Maida, the executive vice chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), stated:
“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.”
