The Telecom Bill 2023, recently approved, has undergone a significant change, removing the mandatory requirement for telcos to display caller ID information to call receivers. In the initial draft, the government proposed the inclusion of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) as a compulsory feature for telecom providers. This system would have presented registered user names from the company database, aiming for accuracy compared to crowd-sourced data used by services like Truecaller.
However, concerns raised by telcos and other stakeholders led to the exclusion of the CNAP provision in the final version of the bill, which received approval in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Telcos argued that mandatory caller ID display might not align with the interests of consumers or companies. Some users prefer anonymity, especially when dealing with sensitive information, and implementing CNAP would require additional infrastructure investment from telcos, potentially increasing call setup times and user dissatisfaction.
While Truecaller, a popular app for identifying caller IDs, has relied on crowd-sourced data, the new bill’s implications also affect its business model. The Data Protection and Privacy (DPDP) Act mandates companies to obtain user consent for data usage, impacting services like Truecaller that rely on data crowdsourcing without explicit user permission.
Despite consultations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the implementation of the CNAP system, the government has shifted its stance, signaling reduced enthusiasm for its inclusion in the telecom sector.
