The Hindu Business Line : DoT for blocking incoming ILD calls without caller ID

In a bid to tackle grey market illegal calls and address security concerns, the Department of Telecom is mulling to block all international long distance telephone calls coming into the country without a caller line identification.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has, however, cautioned against such a move on the grounds that blocking calls would lead to inconvenience to consumers as a large number of international calls would not be completed and this would affect the collection of the Access Deficit Charges.

Senior officials in DoT said that ILD operators in India such as VSNL, Reliance and Bharti should be asked to make sure that the calls coming into India should have the caller line identification or else block all calls that do not display the number. A large number of ILD calls coming into the country do not display the phone number of the person who is calling. They either come with the digits like 301, 401, 501 or as `unknown number'.

The DoT move comes after the security agencies pointed out the rampant practice could pose a security threat to the country. While some of the operators have expressed technical problems in displaying the CLI number for calls coming from international destinations, DoT officials said that it was possible to put a system in place.

A meeting was recently convened between security agencies, DoT officials and ILD operators to discuss the matter. Security agencies are insisting that ILD operators furnish the exact number from where the ILD call is coming into the country. The vigilance section of DoT is also in favour of such a move. The TRAIon the other hand has pointed out to a DoT directive issued in 2003 that ILD operators need to transmit the CLI as was received from the foreign carriers and in case the CLI was not available then the operators can put their own identification number and the code of the country from where the call was generated. In a letter written to DoT Secretary on November 1, TRAI has said that the views expressed by Government officials during the meeting with the industry to block all calls without CLI was in variance to its own directive issue earlier. VSNL had also written to the Government and TRAI seeking clarity on the issue.

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