T-Mobile launched a new initiative today called ScamShield. The program includes a suite of several technologies designed to combat scam calls and robocalls, all of which are now free for all T-Mobile, Metro, and Sprint customers. Advanced caller-ID is included, which identifies many callers even if they aren't in your contact list. This feature was previously called Name ID and incurred a charge of $4/month/line with many plans. T-Mobile also detailed its own proprietary technology which uses machine learning to identify suspicious callers at the network level. T-Mobile claims this technology performs 30% better than the offerings of competitors like Verizon. T-Mobile's list of suspicious numbers is updated every six minutes. All customers can choose to have all such calls automatically blocked today, for free, by dialing #662#. Starting July 24th, T-Mobile and Metro customers can download a free app called ScamShield that offers a number of additional options and features for managing such calls. Sprint's Call Screener app is also free. The new initiative also includes features for protecting and managing the privacy of your personal phone number. PROXY# is a free second phone number you can give out instead of your real, main number. On incoming calls, an indicator on your phone shows which number is being called, and the second number has its own voicemail inbox. Finally, NumberChange is a new option that lets you get a whole new primary number once, for free, for a "clean slate".


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