AT&T’s robocall-blocking expansion won’t block spam calls unless you pay extra

Enlarge / AT&T’s Call Protect and Mobile Security apps for Android. (credit: AT&T)

AT&T yesterday said it will add “automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam-call alerts” to mobile phone lines for no added cost, but the carrier still imposes limits on blocking of spam calls unless customers pay extra.

“New AT&T Mobility consumer lines will come with the anti-robocall service. Millions of existing AT&T customers also will have it automatically added to their accounts over the coming months,” AT&T’s announcement said.

Despite the change, customers will still have to manually add undesired phone numbers to block lists or pay $4 a month to send all suspected spam calls to voicemail. That’s because this is little more than an expansion of AT&T’s Call Protect service, which has a basic free tier and a paid tier with automatic blocking of spam calls.