Seattle-based Hiya struck an agreement with BT Group to provide its call protection service, Hiya Protect, to BT and EE customers.
EE is the first major carrier to select and implement Hiya Protect in conjunction with Ericsson since the companies announced their integration relationship back in September. The offering, called Call Qualification, is a spam and fraud protection service powered by Hiya Protect that is available to all wireless carriers using the Ericsson IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).
Operators that don’t use the Ericsson IMS are able to work directly with Hiya to implement call protection in other ways, according to Hiya President Kush Parikh. They can connect directly to its APIs or they can work with other network providers such as Nokia and Titan.ium Platform (formerly NetNumber), each of whom have active deployments with Hiya in the U.S. and abroad, he said via email.
Operators are also able to enable call protection outside of the network with Hiya via the Hiya SDK, which is deployed at carriers such as Telenor and MasMovil via their respective security applications.
In the U.S., Hiya has agreements to offer call protection for AT&T, the AT&T prepaid Cricket brand, FirstNet and Gabb. In addition, “we protect all Samsung Galaxy users, which is carrier agnostic, through our OEM partnership and individuals using the Hiya App,” Parikh said.
Of course, it comes as no surprise that spam and fraud calls are on the rise in the U.K. According to Hiya’s research, 29% of calls in the U.K. are spam and 50% are fraud – representing the highest rate across Europe. Given the high rate of bad calls, it’s becoming harder for U.K. customers to answer the calls they actually want to receive.
The addition of BT and EE expands Hiya's global reach to over 250 million users.
“Telecommunication carriers around the world are challenged to build trust for voice calls. The need to eradicate fraudulent calls, clearly label nuisance calls, and provide better labeling of unidentified calls outside of the address book has never been greater,” Parikh said in a statement. “Consumers deserve certainty in knowing who is calling when they pick up the phone. BT and EE are leading the way in the U.K. by implementing the most advanced voice security platform to fight the growing problem of spam and fraud calls, while helping legitimate calls get through.”
Powered by AI technology that allows carriers to recognize and stop new and emerging scams in real-time, Hiya Protect satisfies regulatory requirements and exceeds carrier demands for subscriber voice call protection, according to the company.