Make Caller ID Display Optional, Not Mandatory: Telecom Firms To TRAI

Industry body COAI has contended that implementation of Calling Name Presentation should not be made mandatory but kept optional for telecom operators, as the association shared technical, privacy and cost related concerns with regulator TRAI to argue its point. COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said “CNAP should not be mandatory and should be optional for the telecom service providers.” “Implementation of CNAP should be left to TSPs and they may consider implementing the same keeping the market dynamics / business case in mind,” Cellular Operators’ Association of India said. In its submission to TRAI’s consultation paper, Reliance Jio said Calling Name Presentation should not be a mandatory service, given the limited availablility of CNAP enabled devices in India. “…CNAP facilities is a good to have supplementary VAS service, however, in a country where over 375 million users are unlikely to possess a CNAP enabled device, in addition to a sizable portion of the wireless broadband users that may not be possessing CNAP enabled devices as well, it can safely be said that it should not be a mandatory service,” Jio said. Jio also explained there will be many technical issues like increased load on signalling and possible impact on latency and interconnection related issues, and added “therefore, a cautious approach is recommended.” “There are privacy related concerns with mandatory activation of the CNAP service on every device,” Jio said.