Trai's new rules will force telcos to identify callers

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday released its latest set of recommendations to introduce Caller ID (caller ID) as a default feature on national telecom networks, nearly two years after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s initial proposal for the same.

The latest set of recommendations proposed that all telecommunications companies “should provide Calling Name Presentation (CNAP)” as an “additional service” to customers “upon their request.”

A technical model for rolling out caller ID was presented by Trai to the Centre, and the regulator recommended the government to issue orders for all telecom companies to start the service within a certain time frame. The recommended CNAP model will see phone calls in India display the name on which a number has been registered with a telecom operator when a phone call is received. The service will likely work as an on-demand feature for users.

After DoT's March 2022 proposal to introduce the service, Trai launched a consultation document for CNAP in November 2022. A consultation on this was held in March last year, following which the Final recommendations have now been published.

The release of the recommendations brings the introduction of caller ID services closer by default. Once launched, the feature is likely to compete with caller ID providers such as Truecaller, the latter of which work on an ad-supported, subscription-based model for customers.

Telecom operators did not immediately make a statement on Trai's recommendations.

“Regarding CNAP, we do not believe that it would be a competitive service comparable to the full range of services and features that Truecaller offers to our more than 374 million users. With our technology and AI capabilities, Truecaller goes beyond just providing a basic number identification service,” said a Truecaller spokesperson.

However, it remains to be seen how such functionality could be rolled out across the country and how the offering of commercial caller ID services will work in tandem with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act of 2023, which should be introduced. following the notification of the DPDP rules later this year.

This feature will likely have at least some impact on Truecaller's user base in India, which is the company's primary user demographic.