Make caller ID display optional: Experts

Make caller ID display optional: Experts

The telecom regulator’s recommendation to offer the calling name display feature on mobile devices as an opt-in service shall protect subscriber privacy while also weeding out fraud and spam callers if implemented with reasonable care and assessment.

“We believe the CLIR (calling line identification restriction) facility is of paramount importance for protecting subscriber privacy and this definitely will not be extended to scam callers if telcos do their due diligence,” a senior government official told ET. “Telcos do gather intelligence on unsolicited calls through a complaints mechanism, which can be utilised for preventing spammers opting for CLIR.”

Industry experts however averred that this may not achieve the desired results in controlling unsolicited calls as these callers can continue to hide their identity. Subscribers may therefore need to continue to depend on caller ID applications which use artificial intelligence (AI) and crowd-sourced data to detect spam callers, they said.

“It is noteworthy that the authority has resolved the issue of preserving subscriber privacy, but that also creates a loophole for unsolicited callers to hide their identity,” said Tarun Pathak, research partner at technology consulting firm Counterpoint Research. “Also, the government must consider who will collect this consent and how will the database be queried when calls are made.”

108022029

Last Friday, TRAI released recommendations stating that all network operators should implement the caller’s name display service on mobile phones and all smartphone makers should be mandated to enable this feature within a stipulated time.

It also suggested that the identity of mobile users who want to restrict this feature should not be presented to the called party.

Sumit Singh, product head at Indian smartphone brand Lava International said, TRAI’s suggestions will benefit consumers, but “we would like to wait for the guidelines for final modalities of its implementation.”

Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel did not respond to ET’s queries on the issue till press time on Monday.

But in January 2023, in their respective submissions to TRAI’s consultation, the two top operators pointed out the CNAP implementation could lead to increase in call set-up time and affect latency, besides other challenges.

Counterpoint’s Pathak said there are challenges on the handset side as well with close to 200 million 2G and 40 million 4G feature phones in India which cannot support this feature. “Existing smartphone base which is close to 700 million, can support CNAP through software updates,” he said.

The government official quoted above, said, “As per our discussions with handset companies, CNAP can also be supported on feature phones.”

As for commercial calls, instead of setting new rules, the government may look at integrating the feature with the existing blockchain architecture which already has a database of registered enterprises. But this may not be sufficient for CNAP as it is currently being predominantly used for SMSes, the official said.

As per TRAI data, there are 305,587 entities registered for sending commercial SMSes and calls. However, the universe is much larger as several entities use 10-digit P2P numbers to make telemarketing calls.

For more news like this visit The Economic Times.