Truecaller launches digital government directory in India
NEW DELHI: Swedish caller identification service, Truecaller, on Tuesday l aunched a digital directory of the Indian government for both Android and IOS platforms even as the government’s plan for a homegrown caller identification system threatens to impact the company’s operations in its largest market by users.
The database includes public helplines of state and central government services, embassies, police departments, government-run schools and hospitals. The service is presently available across 23 states and union territories.
Truecaller’s announcement comes a week after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) issued a cross-industry consultation paper to build a native caller ID system. The regulator noted, in its consultation paper titled ‘ Introduction of
Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in Telecommunication Networks’ on 29 November, that the presently available caller ID options for users, which includes Truecaller, are not entirely reliable since their services are “based on crowdsourced data, which may not be reliable in many instances.”
Trai’s efforts are likely to impact the core business model of Truecaller, which is among the most popular caller ID services. The company claims to have more than 240 million users in India, its largest market. Currently, Truecaller offers two paid tiers of service for its users namely Premium Connect at ₹549 per year, and Premium Gold at ₹4,999 per year. The company advertises features such as ad-free usage, ’premium’ spam protection, ‘who viewed my profile’ and an incognito mode.
The government directory will be a free service. Truecaller also launched features like covid-19 helplines in April 2021, and ‘Smart SMS’ spam filtering service in June last year.
Industry experts said while Truecaller’s primary product so far remains caller identification, the move to add a government directory could be the early steps of the company looking to diversify its services.