DoT sets March 2026 deadline for pan-India rollout of CNAP service

The DoT directs telcos to launch Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) across India by March 2026, with pilots underway and Trai's support for a default opt-out model

The telecom department has asked telecom service providers to begin offering CNAP (Caller Name Presentation) service — which displays the identity of the calling party on smartphones — across all circles by March 2026.

 

DoT directs telcos to meet March 2026 rollout target

 

Officials in the know said the government had initially set an internal target for the end of this year but had officially communicated to the telcos to roll out the service by March 2026.

 

Carriers including Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio are conducting pilots in some northern circles, with live tests expected soon. The telcos will have to conduct interoperability tests so that calls from one network correctly display the caller’s identification on another network. 

 

“If the service works in most cases, we’ll move ahead with wider implementation,” said one of the officials.

 

Default feature with opt-out option for users

 

CNAP is set to be a default service, though users will have the option to opt out. The directions to telcos come after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) aligned with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on implementing the service. The key feature is its default opt-out model, rather than the initially proposed opt-in-only version.

 

The feature was proposed by Trai earlier this year as a measure to curb spam and fraudulent calls. Currently, only numbers are displayed for incoming calls by default, with no mandatory name display service in place. Users typically rely on third-party apps like Truecaller to identify callers.

 

Telcos highlight implementation and device concerns

 

Telcos have raised concerns about attributing CNAP when numbers belong to businesses or family-shared mobile connections. The feature will initially apply only to 5G devices and compatible 4G smartphones.

 

Older circuit-switched networks — primarily legacy 2G and 3G — will be brought under CNAP after further technical feasibility studies. Telecom licence conditions will be amended to ensure all new devices sold in India after a notified cut-off date support CNAP, in coordination with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

 

Trai and DoT outline data and compliance framework

 

Telecom companies are expected to follow specific DoT guidelines for database management and subscriber name records, based on information from customer application forms (CAF) and government documentation.

 

Trai has also clarified that explicit identification of telemarketer and business lines will remain mandatory. Bulk connection holders may use verified trademark or trade names as their display identity, subject to government-approved procedures.