Ericsson teamed with US-based call performance management company Hiya to tackle spam calls, a problem the vendor reported is on the up with consumers typically receiving 14 nuisance communications per month.

The pair’s Call Qualification system is designed to assist operators in identifying inbound spam or fraudulent calls and prevent them going beyond the network level.

Ericsson explained the set-up employs intelligent learning to keep itself up to date with the latest details of nuisance communications.

Latest figures from Hiya show spam calls have increased 13 per cent so far in 2022. Around 25 per cent of phone users told the company they had lost money to a scam, which the company stated averages out at around $542 per victim.

David Bjore, head of solution area Communication Services at Ericsson, stated operators have much to gain by eliminating spam calls, something “likely to positively impact subscriber satisfaction and customer loyalty”.

Call Qualification employs Ericsson’s cloud-native IP Multimedia System along with a call protection system from Hiya.

Ericsson expects initial deployments of the system later this year.