Understanding and Highlighting Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Services

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In March 2022, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to provide its recommendations on introducing a calling party name presentation facility (CNAP) in Indian telecommunications networks. In a subsequent note provided by DoT to TRAI in September 2022, it pointed that the introduction of CNAP aims to empower telecom consumers to take informed decisions while receiving incoming calls, and to reduce the harassment of subscribers from unknown/ spam callers, as they will be able to clearly identify the caller (by having access to name and not just number) before picking up the calls. Consequently, in November 2022, TRAI released a Consultation Paper (CP) on the issue.

This project was undertaken to understand and highlight the consumer perspectives and issues which will arise due to the proposed CNAP. There are some issues in the TRAI’s CP that need thorough examination from a consumer perspective. To understand the issues, CUTS reached out to over 120 consumer groups, and discussed the concerns in detail with a few of them. CUTS prepared and submitted detailed comments and counter comments on the CP, highlighting the consumer perspectives and issues, as well as suggesting a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed feature. Some of the groups submitted their comments and endorsed CUTS views. A select few of these groups jointly submitted a letter to the regulator, pointing out key issues and concerns for the consumers.

What’s New’

• Project brief