Airtel Africa, a leading telecommunications provider, has announced that its AI-driven spam alert system has successfully cut down unwanted messages and spam traffic in Nigeria by an impressive 84% within just six months. This achievement highlights the ongoing efforts to combat fraudulent activities throughout the nation.
Beyond Nigeria, Airtel reported that its AI tool identified over 200 million spam messages during the same timeframe. Across all its markets, the technology contributed to a 12% reduction in spam SMS overall.
This progress underscores Airtel Africa’s dedication to enhancing subscriber security amid the rapid growth of mobile phone usage across the continent. The spam alert feature is currently accessible to Airtel customers in 13 out of its 14 operational countries.
Commenting on this milestone, Airtel Africa’s CEO, Sunil Taldar, emphasized that the complimentary AI-powered spam detection service reflects the company’s commitment to safeguarding users and ensuring a more secure network environment.
“We take pride in leading the way with cutting-edge AI technology to address the widespread issue of spam messages, which has become increasingly prevalent as smartphone adoption rises across Africa,” Taldar stated.
The spam detection service is operational in key markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Gabon, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, Malawi, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Chad, Zambia, and Niger. Airtel’s smallest market, Seychelles, is anticipated to be integrated shortly.
Among these, Kenya recorded the highest volume of spam messages intercepted, totaling 68 million, followed by Tanzania with 47 million and Zambia with 33 million.
Earlier in July, Airtel Nigeria disclosed that between March 13 and May 20, 2025, the spam alert system blocked over 9.6 million suspicious texts on its network. Of these, 528,080 originated from Airtel users, while 9,138,928 came from other nigeria-afpif-internet-local-hosting/” title=”…'s AfPIF Moment: Is It Time for the Country to Truly Own Its Internet?”>service providers.
Also Read: Airtel Africa targets IPO for mobile money division valued at over $4 billion.
Spam SMS Filtering in India
Outside Africa, Airtel’s AI spam detection technology has also been instrumental in combating cyber threats in India, where Bharti Airtel operates.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs reported a 14.3% decline in cybercrime incidents on the Airtel network, thanks to the spam detection system. Additionally, the tool identified 48.3 billion spam calls and blocked over 320,000 fraudulent URLs.
The agency further noted that the technology contributed to a remarkable 68.7% reduction in financial losses linked to cybercrime, demonstrating the effectiveness of Airtel’s fraud prevention measures in securing its users.
Since its launch in India in September 2024, this AI-based spam detection solution has been a pioneer in addressing the country’s spam challenges, marking the first network-level AI spam filter in the region.
Key Facts About Airtel’s Spam Alert Service
Introduced in March 2025, Airtel Africa’s AI-powered Spam Alert is a complimentary, automatic service designed to identify and notify users of potentially harmful SMS messages.
The system evaluates sender behavior through more than 250 criteria, including SIM card swaps and network activity patterns, to detect spam without accessing the content of individual messages.
All Airtel subscribers across Africa are enrolled in this service by default, requiring no additional downloads or setup, thereby offering instant protection against SMS-based fraud.
The AI engine analyzes various factors such as the frequency of SIM card changes, the volume of messages sent, and the geographic distribution of recipients. This data is processed within milliseconds to flag suspicious messages before they reach the user.
When a message is identified as potential spam, subscribers receive an immediate alert with the label “Suspected SPAM,” enabling them to avoid falling victim to scams.
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