The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) at India’s Ministry of Communications has directed telecom operators to roll out calling name presentations (CNAP) across their service areas from November 1, 2026, to allow users to see the caller’s name alongside their phone number without necessarily saving contact details beforehand.
The rollout follows an amendment to the definition of calling line identification (CLI) under the unified licence agreement, which will also take effect on November 1.
The revised definition includes the caller’s name as recorded in telecom operators’ subscriber databases. However, contacts saved will continue to remain unchanged.
This would mean, when a call is coming through, instead of the receiver seeing the name with which he or she has saved the caller’s number on his/her phone, the name with which the caller’s number is registered with the telecom service provider would be displayed in the receiver’s phone.
Inc42.com reports that CNAP will be enabled in India by default on 4G and higher-generation wireless networks, without requiring users to opt in. Its rollout on 2G and 3G networks and landline connections will be examined separately.
However, callers who have activated the calling line identification restriction (CLIR) facility to hide their identity will be exempt from this.
For this to work, the originating telco is required to maintain a database linking subscribers’ names to their telephone identifiers, which the recipient’s operator will query to display the caller’s name without retaining it after the call ends.
The DoT has also allowed business and bulk-connection users to display a preferred name instead of the one in their subscriber records, provided it is backed by a trademark registered with the Trade marks registry or a trade name registered on the goods and services tax (GST) portal. These users can also request changes, subject to verification
Telecom operators, including the likes of Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, must verify the supporting documents before approving the change.
The guidelines require telecom operators to protect users’ privacy by ensuring caller names are not stored after a call ends. They must also ensure their networks can handle caller identification requests without affecting service quality and set up systems to address complaints related to the service.
The rollout follows trials conducted by telecom operators on 4G and higher-generation networks and the TRAI’s recommendations issued in February 2024.
Last year in October, TRAI supported making CNAP available by default, departing from its earlier proposal to activate the service only upon user request.
What is CNAP?
In short, CNAP is a telecommunications service that displays the name of a person or business making a telephone call on the recipient’s phone, alongside or instead of just the caller’s number.
How it works: The caller initiates a call, and the originating telco identifies the calling number. The telco then retrieves the name associated with that number either from its own database or from another supported name-identification system, like a national ID database.
The caller’s name is then delivered to the receiving network as part of the call-signalling process or through a supported lookup mechanism. The name is then displayed on the recipient’s phone screen, provided the network and device support the service.
Why it matters
Convenience: It helps people to easily identify callers before answering.
Business communication: It enables customers to recognise calls from businesses and institutions.
Trust and security: It can help reduce uncertainty about incoming calls, and to identify suspicious calls, although a displayed name does not guarantee that a caller is genuine.
In Ghana
In Ghana where several fraudsters use phone numbers registered in the names of other persons, CNAP can be a very good tool to expose such fraudsters, particularly those who are males but use numbers registered in the name of females.
