Bharti Airtel, one of India's leading telecom operators, has rolled out significant upgrades to its spam detection tools, aiming to curb the rising menace of spam and scam calls—especially those originating from international networks. This move comes amid a 12% increase in overseas spam calls over the last six months, prompting Airtel to strengthen its AI-driven tools and customer protection systems.

Expansion of Airtel’s AI-Powered Spam Detection

Airtel’s artificial intelligence-based spam filter had previously flagged over 27.5 billion spam calls. Now, the company is taking this technology to the next level by expanding its scope to include international calls and SMS—a necessary step considering scammers are increasingly turning to foreign networks to bypass domestic telecom filters.

According to Airtel, the shift in spam traffic to overseas sources has become a significant concern in recent months. By expanding its AI tool's capability, Airtel intends to nullify this tactic and better protect its users.

Introducing Spam Alerts in 10 Indian Languages

In a customer-first move, Airtel is now offering spam alerts in ten Indian languages, ensuring wider accessibility and inclusion for its diverse user base. The supported languages include:

• Hindi

• Marathi

• Bengali

• Gujarati

• Tamil

• Kannada

• Malayalam

• Urdu

• Punjabi

• Telugu

These spam alerts will be displayed directly on Android devices and auto-activated for all users, requiring no manual setup or service request. The company mentioned that support for more languages is expected in future updates.

Why This Matters for Indian Users

The linguistic diversity of India makes it vital for digital services to communicate in local languages. Airtel's move to introduce vernacular spam notifications helps bridge this gap, allowing users to clearly understand and act on potential threats, especially in rural and non-English-speaking regions.

Siddharth Sharma, Director of Marketing and CEO of Connected Homes at Bharti Airtel, said, “Customers and their feedback are at the heart of everything we do. After carefully analysing customer feedback, we have enhanced our solutions to better serve the linguistic diversity of India.”

Addressing the Rise in International Spam Traffic

One of the core upgrades to the spam alert system is its new ability to scan and detect international spam attempts. Until recently, Airtel’s detection system focused primarily on domestic spam traffic. However, spammers began shifting their operations to foreign networks, which created loopholes in the existing protection model.

Airtel said that this alarming new trend triggered the company to update its AI models, enabling detection of calls and SMS from overseas networks that exhibit suspicious behaviour patterns. This step is expected to dramatically reduce the number of successful scam attempts reaching Indian users.

Free Service and Android Compatibility

All newly introduced features will be available free of cost and require no manual intervention from customers. The spam alerts in Indian languages will be exclusively available to Android users, as Android allows deeper integration for system-level notifications and alerts compared to iOS.

While iOS users may not immediately receive multilingual spam alerts, Airtel is expected to enhance cross-platform compatibility in future updates, based on user feedback and platform capabilities.

How the Spam Detection System Works

Airtel’s spam detection tool leverages machine learning and AI algorithms that analyse patterns such as:

• Call origin

• Volume of messages sent

• Known spammer identifiers

• User feedback and complaint history

Once a spammy behaviour is detected, the system flags the number and displays an alert to the customer before answering the call or opening the SMS.

Importance of This Move in Today’s Digital India

India is seeing an unprecedented rise in smartphone adoption, and with it comes increased exposure to digital scams. Telecom operators are under pressure from both consumers and regulatory bodies to take stringent action against spam and fraud.

With this update, Airtel is aligning with government-backed initiatives to fight spam, such as TRAI’s efforts and DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform. It's also setting an industry benchmark by prioritising language inclusivity and international spam filtering, areas often neglected in typical telecom spam solutions.

Future Roadmap and Expectations

Airtel hinted that more languages will be added soon, along with enhanced iOS compatibility and more granular spam categorisation (e.g., identifying telemarketing vs fraud calls). It also aims to integrate user feedback mechanisms directly into the spam alert interface to help improve detection accuracy further.

By investing in AI and multilingual support, Airtel is not only reinforcing customer trust but also setting a high bar in digital safety standards within the Indian telecom ecosystem.

Conclusion

Airtel’s latest updates are a proactive and consumer-centric approach in an increasingly complex spam landscape. By embracing AI-powered solutions and providing regional language alerts, the company is addressing both technological threats and accessibility gaps.

These efforts not only protect users from rising scam trends but also demonstrate Airtel’s long-term vision for a safer digital experience for every Indian mobile user.

As digital fraud becomes more sophisticated, such intelligent spam protection systems will be key in ensuring user security across all demographics.

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