Telecom players should provide caller ID to subscribers upon request: TRAI

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday released recommendations on ‘Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) Service in Indian Telecommunication Network’, which means the name identity information provided by the telephone subscriber in the Customer Application Form (CAF) should be used for the purpose of CNAP.

This will be similar to the Truecaller application’s caller identification feature showing the caller’s name or nickname on the smartphon screen.

“All access service providers should provide Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) supplementary service to their telephone subscribers upon request,” the regulator said in its recommendations.

CNAP Supplementary Service should be introduced in the Indian telecommunication network and Calling Line Identification (CLI) should be redefined as identity of the calling/ originating subscriber in terms of telephone number assigned as per the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Recommendation/ IP Address, and the Calling Name (CNAM) or any other identification as may be prescribed by the licensor from time to time.

• Also read: Telcos and tech companies oppose mandatory caller ID

It added that the CNAM of telephone subscribers who have availed of the calling line identification restriction (CLIR) facility, should not be presented to the called party.

The development comes after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) requested TRAI on March 21, 2022 to submit its recommendations under Section 11(1) (a) of the TRAI Act, 1997 (as amended) on introducing the CNAP facility in the Indian Telecommunications Network.

Later, TRAI issued a Consultation Paper on ‘Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Networks’ on November 29, 2022 for soliciting comments and counter comments of stakeholders.

In response, 40 stakeholders submitted their comments, and five stakeholders furnished their counter comments. An Open House Discussion on the Consultation Paper was held on March 9, 2023, in the virtual mode, TRAI said.

“Based on the comments, inputs received from stakeholders and on its own analysis, TRAI has finalised its recommendations on introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) Service,’” it said.

Technical model for CNAP service

The recommendations outline a technical model for implementation of CNAP in the Indian telecommunication network, TRAI said, adding that after acceptance of the recommendations, the government should issue appropriate instructions to make the CNAP feature available in all devices sold in India after a suitable cut-off date.

Subscriber entities holding bulk connections and business connections (like Banking/ Property) should be given the facility to present their ‘preferred name’ in place of the name appearing in the CAF, it said.

“The ‘preferred name’ could be the ‘trademark name’ registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, or the ‘trade name’ registered with the GST Council, or any other such unique name duly registered with the government, provided that the subscriber entity is able to present the necessary documents to prove ownership of such name,” it added.

Welcoming the recommendations by TRAI Truecaller said, “We welcome all efforts in the mission to make communication safe and efficient in the interest of Indian consumers. The recognition of Caller ID as an important building block of the information communication economy is encouraging since we strongly believe that number identification is crucial to end the menace of spam and scam calls. At Truecaller, we have been working tirelessly towards this mission for over a decade and a half. We would like to extend our support to TRAI and we remain very appreciative of this and any future initiatives.”