NEW DELHI: In a bid to check spam calls in, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked telecom service providers to start trials of CNAP (Calling Name Presentation), a feature that will display name of a caller. According to DoT officials, the government wants these features to be implemented as soon as possible, most probably after the general elections.
“After getting a recommendation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), DoT asked all three private telecom service providers to start trials of the feature. Moreover, the government wants to implement the features as soon as possible to curb spam calls. Chances are high to start the service post-election,” said an official.
CNAP is a service similar to Truecaller that will show callers’ name. How will it be different from this third-party app? Truecaller provides information based on crowdsourcing, which may be inaccurate at times, while CNAP will acquire the database from the Customer Application Form (CAF).
CAF means a form duly filled out by the customer, which provides details of the customer, installation address, etc., while purchasing a SIM.
This means the name you use when purchasing a SIM card will be the one visible to the person you are calling. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have started creating and maintaining a database that contains customer names along with their phone numbers.
However, the feature also faced backlash in 2023, when the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea, raised privacy concerns.