Telcos seek clarity on name display in caller ID trials

New Delhi: India's top telecom operators have sought clarity from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on displaying caller details related to business and family mobile connections as part of calling name presentation (CNAP) service being tested by them.

The telcos are currently doing inter and intra circle trials on CNAP and have faced queries from consumers regarding certain points.

“We have asked the DoT to clarify on business and family connections and what name should be displayed,” said an executive working with one of the firms.

Since business connections are issued in the name of a company and not individuals who use the number, the telcos want to know what should be displayed as the caller—the company name, the brand name or the individual. Similarly, in family plans, multiple numbers are taken by one individual and used by entire family members, so it needs to be clarified if the individual who is using the number should be displayed or the person who has taken the connection.

For certain business connections, the firms want to display their brand name, which is more recognisable by the users.

Queries sent to Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea remained unanswered at the time of going to press.

The confusion arises as under CNAP, the details of customer acquisition form (CAF) are displayed as caller details and not the person who is actually using the number. As the telcos are currently doing trials on the technology, the government would take a call on implementation timelines after conclusion of such tests.

"On the basis of the outcome of such trials and assessment by telecom service providers, the government shall take decision on implementation of CNAP service in mobile networks,” minister of state for communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar informed Parliament last month.

The DoT has been pushing the telcos to implement the CNAP service at the earliest. The plan to make name display compulsory for incoming calls is meant to curb spam and scam calls as the recipient of calls will be able to know who is calling. But technological constraints have prevented the implementation of the service on 2G networks, according to telcos.

In February last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had called on the government to mandate telcos to implement the CNAP service and push handset manufacturers to enable the feature in six months in a bid to reduce customer harassment from unknown or spam callers.

As per Trai, implementation of CNAP supplementary service would make it easier to trace problematic calls and discourage obscene callers. It would minimise incidents of impersonation, wherein callers use fake names or claim to be calling on behalf of some other entity.

The government and the regulator feel in India, digital growth levels have far exceeded the corresponding digital literacy levels. "Consequently, there is a prevalence of online payment frauds like vishing (voice phishing), especially where customers are new to the products, or they may unknowingly divulge bank/credit card details. CNAP supplementary service will help in curbing such frauds,” Trai had said while giving the recommendations.