The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released recommendations on ‘Introduction of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) Service in Indian Telecommunication Network’.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through a letter dated July 11, 2022, had stated that the introduction of CNAP facility in telecommunication networks aims to empower subscribers to take an informed decision while receiving an incoming call, and to reduce the harassment of subscribers from unknown/spam callers. In order to facilitate CNAP feature to all telephone subscribers (smartphone and feature phone owners) in India, telecom network readiness and feasibility need to be explored so that CNAP can be implemented in multi-technology networks across telecom service providers without the need for internet or smartphones/devices. CNAP facility requires inter-telecom service provider coordination and access to a subscriber’s name during the call flow.

Presently, in Indian telecom networks, only the mobile/landline numbers are being displayed as calling line identification (CLI) during incoming calls. There is no mandate in the licence for providing CNAP supplementary services.

In view of the above, TRAI has released recommendations, which includes –

  • CNAP supplementary service should be introduced in Indian telecommunication network.
  • All access service providers should provide CNAP supplementary service to their telephone subscribers upon their request.
  • The calling name (CNAM) of each telephone subscriber should be provided by the originating access service providers.

TRAI has further recommended that the name identity information provided by telephone subscribers in the customer application form (CAF) should be used for the purpose of CNAP.

As a large part of the Indian telecommunication network is still based on circuit-switched (CS) core, TRAI has recommended that CNAP supplementary service should be implemented in the Indian telecommunication network using a technical model as outlined below:

  • Each access service provider establishes and operates a database containing subscriber’s name against the telephone number of its subscribers.
  • At the time of receiving a telephone call, based on the telephone number of the calling party, the terminating access service provider queries its Local Number Portability Database (LNPD) to determine the originating access service provider of the telephone call.
  • In case the terminating access service provider and the originating access service provider of the telephone call are the same, the terminating access service provider queries its own calling name (CNAM) database, retrieves the CNAM information, and presents the CNAM to the called party.
  • However, in case the originating access service provider of the telephone call is different from the terminating access service provider, the terminating access service provider queries the CNAM database of the originating access service 62 provider, retrieves the CNAM information, and presents the CNAM to the called party.

In addition, TRAI has recommended that prior to the implementation of CNAP supplementary service on pan-India basis in Indian telecommunication network, a trial and assessment of the implementation of CNAP supplementary service should be conducted in one licenced service area (LSA) with subscriber base of each telecom service provider in the LSA.

Furthermore, TRAI has recommended that after acceptance of these recommendations, the government should issue appropriate instructions for making CNAP feature available in all devices sold in India after a suitable cut-off date, say after six months from the date of notification.