Mobile users across India will soon be able to see the verified name of incoming callers — directly on their phone screens — as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) pushes ahead with plans to launch the Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) service nationwide by March 2026.
Pilot deployments have already begun in Haryana, with Vodafone Idea starting live tests and Reliance Jio preparing to follow suit in the same circle ahead of a broader rollout. Bharti Airtel is also part of the early phase, with pilots planned across northern circles.
The CNAP service, similar to popular third-party caller ID apps but backed by verified telecom KYC data, aims to help consumers identify unknown callers, avoid spam, and improve overall call transparency.
“The internal target is to roll out the caller ID service by December 2025, but in any case, March 31, 2026 will remain the official deadline,” a senior DoT official told Moneycontrol.
The next phase of pilots will focus on live interoperability testing — ensuring that verified caller names appear correctly even when calls are made between different operators’ networks.
According to officials, the pilots are designed to assess real-world network performance and resolve lingering issues related to name display accuracy, KYC-linked identification, and enterprise or family connections.
“The idea is not to wait for a perfect version,” an official said. “If the service works reliably in 80–90% of cases, we’ll move ahead with wider implementation.”
The CNAP system has already undergone successful inter-operator trials for 4G and newer networks in Haryana and Maharashtra, with Jio and Airtel completing their tests earlier. Vodafone Idea also conducted interoperability trials with Jio and Airtel in Ambala this month under DoT supervision.
However, nearly 200 million subscribers on legacy 2G networks will not be able to use the service initially. In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) last month, the DoT said that the absence of compatible software patches makes CNAP technically infeasible on circuit-switched 2G networks.
“Due to a multi-technology, multi-vendor environment and legacy network, TSPs reported non-availability of software patches and other technical upgrades required for implementation of CNAP service in circuit-switched networks,” the department noted.
Both Airtel and Vodafone Idea have partnered with Nokia to deploy the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform nationwide — a core technology that enables CNAP, spam analytics, and international call filtering. Jio, meanwhile, has built its CNAP solution in-house and, being a pure 4G/5G operator, is better positioned for early adoption.
For Airtel and Vi, the rollout will initially cover 4G and 5G users, while 2G feature phone subscribers will have to wait longer as the service requires extensive network upgrades.
The department has decided that CNAP will be activated by default for all users, though subscribers will have the option to disable the feature if they choose.
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