Tokyo (Japan) - NEC today said that it has made first steps to bring a new technology to market that promises to protect VoIP from "Spam over IP" . In first test, the technology has achieved a 99% success rate, the company claims.

Voice over IP may not be in every households yet, but reports about spam extending from email to VoIP have been in the media for some time - and NEC now says it is first to have an effective technology to block spam calls on your Internet phone.

The approach, which will be demonstrated at the upcoming 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February, is based on conducting a "Turing" test with every incoming phone call. This test, described by Alan Turing in 1950, is a common way to determine whether a machine is capable of performing a human-like conversation. If the test result is negative, a VoIP call is blocked.

NEC said that first test runs through its technology, dubbed "Seal", have shown that the technology can detect about 99% of spam calls. The company did not say when the "platform" may be commercially available.