From 1 November 2026, phones on 4G and 5G networks in India will show the caller's registered name by default, through CNAP (Calling Name Presentation). The Department of Telecommunications ordered it in a circular dated 13 October. For businesses, the name shown is the one in your telecom operator's subscriber records, unless you register a verified "preferred name" based on your trademark or GST trade name.
If your sales or support SIMs are in a director's or employee's personal name, that personal name is what customers will see. This pulse covers what the order says, what to check before 1 November, and four other changes from the past fortnight.
What the CNAP caller name display order says
According to MediaNama's report on the DoT caller name order, which also published the circular, the main points are:
- Start date: 1 November 2026, in all service areas.
- Networks: 4G and newer only. DoT will look at 2G, 3G and landlines separately later.
- On by default: it applies to every user without a separate request. The only users whose name is held back are those with the calling line identification restriction (CLIR) facility.
- Which name appears: if the person you call has saved your number, they see their own contact name. If not, they see the name from your operator's subscriber records. International calls show "International Call".
- Business and bulk connections: operators may let them show a preferred name instead, but only a trademark registered in the business's name with the Trade Marks Registry, or a trade name registered on the GST portal. The operator verifies it first.
Indiantelevision.com's report adds that operators must not keep the caller's name after the call ends, and that CNAP complaints go through the existing telecom grievance process.
What this means for businesses that call customers
Many small businesses buy SIMs in the owner's name, or let each salesperson use a personal number. From 1 November a customer who has not saved that number sees "Rajesh Kumar" instead of your shop or company name. For a cold sales call, that may decide whether the customer picks up.
The same applies to AI calling. A voice agent that dials leads uses some number, and that number belongs to a connection with a name on it. Find out which entity each outbound number is registered to. If you run AI calls, our pulse on TRAI's A2P call rules covers the separate rules on declaring automated calls.
The circular does not mention the 140 and 160 telemarketing and service series. TRAI's February 2024 CNAP recommendations said calls from 140-series numbers should always show the entity's name, but that is a recommendation, not the circular. Ask your operator how they will handle these series rather than assuming.
CNAP checklist: what to do before 1 November
| Step | What to do | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1. List your numbers | Every number used to call customers: sales SIMs, support lines, numbers used by voice agents or dialers | Office or ops head |
| 2. Check the registered name | For each number, note whose name the connection is in (the business, a director, an employee) | Office or ops head |
| 3. Pick your preferred name | Use the trade name on your GST registration, or a trademark registered in the business's name | Owner |
| 4. Ask your operator | Ask how to apply for a preferred name on existing business connections and which documents they need | Owner or accounts |
| 5. Move personal SIMs | Where a key sales number is in a personal name, consider moving it to a business connection | Owner |
| 6. Brief the team | Tell staff what customers will see, and ask them to share the business number in every first message so it gets saved | Sales lead |
Step 6 costs nothing. A customer who saved your number on WhatsApp sees your saved name, whatever the network shows.
Also this fortnight
CERT-In warns about AI agents reaching live systems (15 Oct)
Business Standard reported a CERT-In advisory saying AI providers told it their models and agents, during research and testing, reached live systems of several Indian organisations and read business records. They got in through credentials exposed in code, configuration files and permissive cloud roles, and none of the organisations noticed. The weaknesses were old ones: keys left in code, dormant APIs, and payment API keys stored in plaintext.
Zapier puts agents inside Zaps (6 Oct)
Zapier Agents is now an AI step that sits inside any Zap, with approval set separately for each tool. We covered the setup on Wednesday in how to use the AI by Zapier step.
Google releases Gemini 4 Argon (13 Oct)
Google's Gemini 4 Argon announcement lists an introductory API price of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens until 30 November 2026, rising to $4 and $20 after that. If you test it for a workflow, budget at the later price.
Microsoft gives Copilot Studio agents their own accounts (15 Oct)
Microsoft's Copilot Studio blog describes agent accounts with their own Microsoft 365 credentials, which staff can hand tasks to by email or Teams. Google announced a similar "coworker agent" with its own Workspace account on 8 October at Gemini at Work.
n8n 3.0 is still not out
n8n's GitHub releases show 2.43.7 as the latest stable version on 16 October, and the project still says 3.0 is expected around October. Its changelog says npm installs stop working with 3.0, so self-hosted setups on npm should plan the move to Docker now.
Next: when an agent has its own login
Agents with their own email accounts, and a CERT-In warning about agents reading data through exposed keys, in the same week. Saturday's report looks at how to set permissions for an AI agent: which actions it can take alone, which need a person, and how to stop one quietly reading more than its job needs. To check your calling setup before 1 November, our AI voice agent page shows how we handle numbers and handoffs.
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