In an attempt to check unsolicited calls, the telecom regulator has recommended that all network operators should implement a calling name display service on mobile phones and all smartphone makers should be mandated to enable this feature within a stipulated time.
In its recommendations to the department of telecommunications (DoT) on calling name presentation (CNAP) service, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said: “The government should issue appropriate instructions for making CNAP feature in all devices sold in India, after a suitable cut-off date, say after six months from the date of notification.”
This also means one won’t have to rely on third-party apps such as Truecaller and ‘‘Bharat Caller ID & Anti-spam’’ to find out who’s calling you.
The recommendations come in the backdrop of telephone consumers’ concerns with respect to robocalls, spam calls and fraudulent calls.
Robocalls are calls made automatically by IT-enabled systems mainly to financially dupe telephone consumers.
Spam calls are unsolicited marketing calls from personal mobile connections, bypassing the do-not-disturb (DND) feature, and targeting a large number of telephone consumers.
Through fraudulent calls, certain individuals attempt to obtain details of bank account/ onetime-password (OTP) to defraud consumers.
The regulator said the pan-India implementation of CNAP shall precede with trials in one license service area where all operators must participate.
The feature will originally be enabled by the terminating access provider who received the call by making a query to the central subscriber database of the provider from where the call originated.