Truecaller's Dream of Showcasing Caller IDs Fulfills Partially as Telcos Inform DoT

In a major development that could change the way people identify anonymous callers, telecom operators have informed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that they can display a caller's identity only within their own network on users' phone screens. This means subscribers will still rely on Truecaller to find out the identities of all unknown callers.

According to sources, telcos have confirmed that if an Airtel subscriber makes a call to another Airtel user, the caller's name will be displayed; however, such displays won't occur when calls are made between different networks like Jio or Vodafone Idea. This partial success is attributed to technical constraints and reluctance among telcos to share their consumer database.

"It is not feasible to implement the calling name presentation (CNAP) feature across all networks currently due to the limitations imposed by circuit switching as well as data sharing concerns," said an executive at a telecom operator.

Given these limitations, it's likely that the government will roll out CNAP in phases, starting with names being displayed on calls made within a single network, officials claim.

According to Jagbir Singh, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Idea, "Our trials have been conducted and we're ready to implement CNAP, but it would be limited to our database. We cannot display caller IDs if they are from other networks unless the operator shares the data with us."

In February, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had urged DoT to mandate the implementation of the caller name identification feature in all telecom networks. This would enable users to see the names of unknown callers on their phone screens, aiding efforts to curb financial frauds and spams.

Bharti Airtel recently launched its own spam detection solution using AI-powered technology, which identifies suspected spam calls and messages, allowing customers to take targeted action.

In a statement, MD & CEO Gopal Vittal expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of CNAP for curbing person-to-person calling scams but acknowledged it as a useful tool for businesses (B2B) to identify companies making calls. For displaying caller IDs, telcos will rely on customer data from their application forms, which all users must fill upon taking up phone connections.

This development may provide some relief to Truecaller's loyal user base, who continue to rely on the app to uncover unknown caller identities but also marks a significant step forward in combating harassment and financial crimes.