AT&T is making quick use of Federal Communications Commission rules explicitly allowing carriers to block robocalls by default which was agreed with back in June. AT&T will start automatically blocking fraud calls and issuing suspected spam call alerts for new phone customers as a matter course, at no extra charge. You’ll have to opt out if you don’t want the company to screen calls this way. Existing customers, meanwhile, will see the feature automatically reach their accounts in the “coming months.”
AT&T’s Call Protect service does three things: it detects and blocks fraudulent calls entirely, flags telemarketers and spam calls as “Suspected Spam” when the phone rings, and allows you to maintain a personal block list to specifically block individual numbers.
Although AT&T isn’t charging extra, the Federal Communications Commission rules don’t prevent it or others from using the auto-blocking as an opportunity to raise subscription rates.
