New Delhi: The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which represents the telecom industry, expressed its concern over the telecom regulator’s proposal to display caller names as such a step would likely to endanger individuals preferring not to be identified to the caller.
According to sources in the telecom industry, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is likely to meet top officials of major telecom companies as well as broadcasting firms on February 15 and 16 to discuss issues that the industry is facing.
Telecom companies too have opposed the regulator’s move, as it would will result higher costs. In November 2022, the telecom regulator proposed CNAP, a feature that aims to allow users to identify callers. In a consultation paper introduced by Trai, the regulator had said that a ‘calling party name presentation facility’ would protect consumer interests.
“While we appreciate the regulator’s intent to eradicate spam calls, it is unlikely that the mandatory implementation of CNAP will be successful in doing so. Moreover, it will create a large privacy risk to users. The implementation of CNAP for such a massive quantum of users would require telecom providers to put in place a secure, synchronised and robust system capable of supporting billions of calls,” it said.
