Conversion collapses
Real OTP traffic converts — a human reads the code and enters it. AIT does not. A sudden drop in the ratio of codes sent to codes verified is the clearest sign a sender is being pumped.
For mobile network operators
AIT traffic control: SMS pumping and AIT fraud prevention for operators
Artificially inflated traffic (AIT), or SMS pumping, is bot-generated OTP and verification traffic sent to number ranges a colluding party controls, to earn on the termination fee. BroadNet AIT traffic control lets mobile operators detect and block it at the A2P boundary.
Stop SMS pumping and artificially inflated traffic at the boundary.
AIT traffic control detects and blocks SMS pumping and OTP fraud at the A2P boundary — before pumped sends inflate termination cost and drain enterprise revenue. Behavioural scoring on the same operator-grade firewall BroadNet runs inside carrier networks, protecting A2P revenue at line rate.
BroadNet · AIT control
A2P boundary
Inline
boundary control
200+
countries
99.99%
SLA
The problem
Pumped traffic hides in your signup flow.
AIT rides your legitimate registration and login forms, so it looks ordinary message-by-message. It only reveals itself in aggregate — in three tells a behavioural model reads in real time.
Destinations concentrate
Legitimate verification fans out across many subscribers. Pumped traffic pools into a narrow set of number ranges a colluding party controls to earn on the termination fee.
Cadence turns robotic
People sign up at human intervals. Bots hammer registration and login forms with machine-regular timing and impossible inter-arrival distributions the model detects in real time.
Read more: What is AIT? · SMS pumping & AIT fraud in 2026 · AIT detection & defense
How BroadNet stops it
Six signals behind every AIT verdict.
Velocity & burst detection
Per-sender, per-route and per-range velocity buckets catch the throughput spikes that static rate limits miss — including distributed pumps that walk around a single-source limit.
OTP conversion monitoring
The engine watches codes-sent versus codes-verified across senders. A collapse in conversion, paired with destination concentration, flags a pumping run in its early minutes.
Destination-range scoring
Fan-out and destination concentration are scored against each sender's normal footprint, so traffic pooling into suspect ranges scores up before it inflates termination cost.
Grey-route corroboration
DLR-truthfulness and routing-signature checks corroborate the boundary verdict, so pumped traffic riding grey routes or SIM-box origins is caught even when the sender ID looks clean.
Signalling corroboration
MAP and Diameter signals from the STP and DRA reinforce or temper the application-layer score — SRI-SM anomalies and reconnaissance patterns feed the same decision.
Revenue-impact reporting
Every flag carries a revenue-leakage estimate from the operator's own rate card, so RA and finance teams triage the largest leaks first and can quantify what was stopped.
Threat coverage
Every inflation pattern, the signal, the outcome.
| Inflation pattern | Detection signal | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| OTP pumping on a target sender | Codes-sent-versus-verified conversion monitoring across senders. | A conversion collapse flags the pumping run in its early minutes. |
| Termination pooled into colluding ranges | Destination-range scoring against each sender's normal fan-out. | Traffic pooling into suspect ranges scores up before it inflates termination cost. |
| Bot-driven signup / login floods | Per-sender, per-route and per-range velocity and burst detection. | Machine-cadence bursts caught, including distributed pumps that walk around a single limit. |
| Pumped traffic riding grey routes / SIM boxes | DLR-truthfulness and routing-signature corroboration. | Caught even when the sender ID looks clean. |
| Signalling-layer reconnaissance | MAP / Diameter corroboration from the STP and DRA (SRI-SM anomalies). | Reconnaissance reinforces the application-layer verdict on one decision. |
Where it sits
At the boundary, corroborated by signalling.
Inline at the A2P boundary
A transparent SMPP 3.4 / 5.0 front-end to the SMSC scores every submission before it is billed — preserving ordering, DLR pass-through and CDR semantics with no SMSC config change.
SS7 & Diameter corroboration
Inline at the STP for SS7 (MAP) and the DRA for Diameter, so signalling-layer reconnaissance and category-3 traffic reinforce the boundary decision.
Mirror, then inline
Most rollouts start in passive-mirror mode for a short learning window while RA teams set baselines, then flip to inline enforcement once the false-positive envelope is signed off.
Per-tenant policy
Multi-tenant on day one — operators running multiple aggregator estates apply different thresholds per bind without duplicating infrastructure.
Why operators pick BroadNet
Built into the firewall, not bolted on.
Firewall heritage
AIT control runs on the same operator-grade firewall and anti-fraud engine BroadNet deploys inside carrier networks — not a bolt-on analytics tool.
Global vantage point
1,000+ operator connections across 200+ countries give the model a broad view of emerging pumping patterns, feeding the boundary decision on every network.
Carrier-grade since 2003
Two decades protecting A2P revenue for operators — with a 99.99% platform SLA and a 24/7 carrier NOC behind every deployment.
Auditable by default
Every verdict is logged with the contributing signals and the policy that applied, exportable to SIEM and CSV for RA reviews and regulator inquiries.
Operator due diligence
Questions operators ask.
What is AIT and why does it drain A2P revenue?
Artificially Inflated Traffic (AIT), also called SMS pumping, is bot-generated traffic that triggers OTP and verification sends to number ranges a colluding party controls, purely to earn on the termination fee. No human ever reads the code. It hides inside legitimate signup and login flows, so it looks ordinary message-by-message and only reveals itself in aggregate — which is exactly what a behavioural model is built to catch.
How do you detect pumping that static rate limits miss?
A rate limit slows a single source; distributed pumps walk straight around it. BroadNet scores behaviour instead — the collapse in codes-sent versus codes-verified, destination concentration into suspect ranges, and machine-regular cadence, corroborated by grey-route and signalling signals. That combination surfaces a pumping run in its early minutes rather than after the bill lands.
How do you avoid blocking legitimate marketing peaks and roaming?
Baselines are per-operator and per-sender-ID, so the model measures drift against each sender's own legitimate traffic rather than a generic template. Seasonal peaks and new campaigns are learned, not punished. Every flag ships with feature attribution your RA team can audit, and thresholds are adjustable per bind, so you tune precision to your regulator's stance.
Does it add latency, and how is it deployed?
Scoring runs on an in-memory path with a low single-digit-millisecond budget, preserving message ordering, DLR pass-through and CDR semantics. Rollouts typically start in passive-mirror mode for a short learning window, then flip to inline enforcement once the false-positive envelope is agreed. It is multi-tenant on day one.
How is this different from the SMS firewall and anti-fraud products?
AIT control is a focused application of the same platform. The SMS and signalling firewalls block grey routes, spoofing and signalling abuse; anti-fraud SMS runs the rule engine plus behavioural ML across every fraud pattern. AIT traffic control tunes that stack specifically at pumping and OTP-fraud economics — and shares the sender-ID registry, policy engine and audit trail with the rest of the operator suite.
Operator-grade
Protect A2P revenue at the boundary.
Detect and block SMS pumping and OTP fraud in its early minutes — before pumped sends inflate termination cost, with every verdict logged and auditable.
Inline
boundary control
1,000+
direct operator connections
99.99%
SLA
See what your senders are really doing.
An operator briefing sizes your AIT exposure, walks the detection signals, and sets out the mirror-then-inline deployment path. Engineering led, no sales fluff.
Related guides & answers
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