Know name of phone caller soon to stop frauds

NEW DELHI: All landline and mobile phones in India will get the name of the caller instead of just the number early next year under a consultation paper issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on "Calling name presentation" (CNAP) in the Indian Telecom Network.

Written comments on the consultation paper are invited to Adviser Akhilesh Kumar Trivedi (Phone: 011-23210481) on the TRAI website <www.trai.gov.in> by December 27 and the counter-comments by January 10. Sixteen issues have been listed in the consultation paper.

It says the telephone consumers are unable to correctly identify the calling party, a requirement that may be met through a presentation facility where the name identity of the calling party is displayed on the phone.

Telephone users have raised concern at various fora that they prefer not to attend calls from unknown telephone numbers as most of such calls from unknown numbers are unsolicited commercial communications from unregistered telemarketers, because of which even genuine telephone calls go unanswered.

The users also raised their concerns about the robocalls, spam calls and fraudulent calls to financially dupe them. There are also complaints of spoofing to make a call from a government agency or a known company to defraud the called party.

TRAI paper says it is cognizant of the need for the "calling party name presentation facility" to protect consumer interests by introducing in the Indian telecommunication network the facility of the "Calling Name Presentation (CNAP).