Everyone’s lives would be better if we were rid of spam calls and messages, but we don’t live in that reality. So most people rely on caller-ID apps or services to save themselves from the ordeal. In September last year, Bharti Airtel launched a spam fighting network free of cost to all users who have a VoLTE-enabled smartphone.

Airtel says its AI-powered systems come across a call or message that seems sketchy based on call patterns, frequency, duration and other parameters to flag them as ‘suspected scam’.

But like any anti-spam service, it has been showing a few cracks—all of which have consequences for both businesses and customers.

Legitimate calls from businesses are flagged as suspected spam by its system, while calls from similar businesses are not. The other troubling problem is that it’s a one-way system where the customer can’t do anything about it. They cannot opt out of the service either.

If your network operator says it's a suspected spam call when there's a number flashing on your screen, are you going to pick it up?

And then there are businesses like Truecaller, which built their business using the crowdsourcing model and built a two-sided business where they made money from both individuals and businesses trying to reach these individuals. Truecaller helped legitimate businesses which were being marked as spam be validated as verified businesses for a fee.

Something in all of this feels broken. What should ideally be free and reliable to save all customers from being scammed is not fully reliable or free.

What’s at stake? Where are the solutions?

In episode 31 of Two by Two, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan try to find the answers with our guests for the week—Parag Kar, former vice president of government affairs at Qualcomm India and Southeast Asia; Chaitanya Chokkareddy, co-founder and CTO of Ozonetel, a cloud-based communication platform providing call-centre solutions for businesses; and The Ken reporter Rounak Kumar Gunjan.

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Additional reading -

Truecaller beat Trai to the punch with spam-call fix

Airtel finds the gap between Truecaller and Trai

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Help us find interesting women guests by filling out this survey - https://theken.typeform.com/to/KH0EOLGo

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This episode of Two by Two was produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.

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