TRAI begins consultation process for show name of caller on mobile phones

In a move to check pesky and fraud calls, telecom regulator TRAI has started a public consultation to put in place a mechanism to display the name of the caller on mobile phones, an official statement said on Tuesday.

At present there are apps like ‘Truecaller’ and ‘Bharat Caller ID & Anti-spam’ which provide calling party name identification and spam identification facilities, but the names are based on crowd sources which may not be reliable, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in the consultation paper on “Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Networks”.

TRAI said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in its reference on CNAP has mentioned that the facility will empower telephone consumers in taking informed decision while receiving calls, and this mechanism reduces the harassment of consumers from unknown or spam callers.

“Further, DoT has requested TRAI to explore the telecom network readiness and feasibility of providing CNAP facility to all telephone subscribers (smartphone and feature-phone owners),” TRAI said.

The regulator has sought public comments on the paper by December 27 and counter comments by January 10, 2023.

For implementation of the CNAP service in the telecom networks, it would be necessary that the service providers have access to a database which contains the correct name identity information of each telephone subscriber.

In the consultation paper, TRAI is also exploring different business models for providing CNAP facilities. PTI