DOT has issued guidelines for allowing Calling Line Identification Restriction service. The service will be available to VVIP status personals such as President, Prime minister and other ministers of central and state governments. Officers of the central intelligence agencies and other top-level government officials can also apply for this service.
For normal user to avail this service, a request stating the reason along with address proof /identity proof and recommendation from additional DGP/IGP of state police intelligence wing should be furnished. The telecom service provider will carry out physical verification of the applicant and forward the request to Telecom Enforcement Resources Monitoring (TERM) cell for approval. Once approved the service will be valid for 12 months after which the process need to be repeated for renewal.
As per the guidelines issued by DOT, service providers should keep the list of CLIR subscribers in a password protected website with complete address and details of the subscriber for authorized Government agencies to view or download for investigation of misuse of CLIR. This facility will not be provided for bulk connections, call centers, telemarketing services and PCO.
What is CLI and CLIR?
CLI stands for Calling Line Identification. Which is simply the number of the calling person displayed to the call receiver. This is enabled by default on all networks and cannot be disabled by the subscriber.
CLIR, Calling Line Identification Restriction service allows subscribers to hide their number while calling someone. The receiver would see something like Private Number/No number/Unknown on their phone instead of the caller's original number. The service need to be activated by the service provider and enabled on subscribers phone.
CLIR service was not offered in India by any service provider due to security reasons. But most VoIP services has this feature or display 3 digit number which allowed to make anonymous calls which are hard to trace.
