Soon, you will receive KYC-based caller name on your phone display

Telecom regulator Trai will soon start consultation on framing a mechanism for caller's (Know Your Customer) KYC-based name to flash on phone screens when someone calls, PTI reported citing a top official.

The regulatory authority has already received a reference to begin consultation from the Department of Telecom (DoT).

Trai Chairman PD Vaghela stated that consultations on this are expected to begin in a couple of months.

"We have just received a reference, and we will start work on this soon. Name as per KYC will appear when someone calls," Vaghela said.

As per reports, this move will pave the way to help identify callers based on their KYC information, providing higher accuracy and transparency than certain apps that use crowdsourcing data to identify callers.

According to PTI, Trai had already been thinking on similar lines, but now that the telecom department has given their approval, work on this will begin soon.

Once the framework for a new KYC-based procedure is established, identity verification will become more clear and more legally tenable, sources said. It will also have a ripple effect, leading to a clean-up of data on crowdsourcing apps as there will be KYC linkages.

According to sources, it is too early to discuss the modalities because numerous issues will be raised during the consultation stage when asked if the procedure will remain voluntary.

Trai has also used blockchain technology to combat the problem of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), or spam calls and messages.