Telecom Companies to Soon Finish Trial of Caller ID System, Dot Gives Instruction, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel

In the last few years, the problem of calls related to spam and fraud on mobile has increased. For incoming calls of telecom companies to deal with this problem, the caller name presentation (CNAP) feature is ready to be presented. The Telecom Department (DOT) has directed large telecom companies to complete the inter-operator trial of this feature by Friday.

A media report states that this feature will require modern network infrastructure. Because of this, this feature will be available only on 4G and 5G smartphones. Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom company, will use its CNAP technology for this. Bharti Airtel has tied up from Nokia to provide CNAP features to its subscribers. After the commencement of this feature, telecom subscribers will be less needed by Truecaller such as third-party collar identification apps.

The CNAP will be shown with the name of the subscriber present in the telecom company’s database. However, it is not known when this feature will be launched for subscribers. Under the new rules of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), a penalty will be imposed on telecom companies if failed to stop spam. However, telecom companies say that these rules will not solve some apprehensions. Recently, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an organization of private telecom companies, said, “A wide attitude is needed to deal with this problem effectively.” Penalty on telecom companies is not a solution. This will not solve the major issue of preventing unwanted commercial communications. If there is a need to apply such a penalty, then it should not be put on telecom companies, but those who make spam calls and messages.

Under the new TRAI rules, a penalty will be imposed on telecom companies giving wrong reports of spam calls and messages. Along with this, TRAI has also made it mandatory for all telecom companies to analyze calls and SMS based on high number of calls, short duration of calls and low ratios of outgoing calls from incoming calls. This will allow spammers to be identified soon. The provision of graded penalty was implemented by amending the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR).