The Telecommunications and the Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has initiated a new feature that will identify the caller’s name – landline or mobile number – of private companies on mobile phones.
Taking to social media TDRA posted a video : “Now, #Kashif is available for all!”
The post also stated that: “The service will be applied on a gradual basis during the coming period,”
The Kashif initiative will recognise the incoming caller's ID even if the number is not saved on the mobile phone.
The new feature will reduce the number of anonymous calls received by the residents and provide information of the caller’s contact before responding to the incoming call.
TDRA indicated that it has issued legislation related to this feature aimed at enhancing customers' confidence in calls received from private sector companies also reducing the inconvenience caused by anonymous calls.
Saif Bin Ghelaita, director of Technology Development Affairs, TDRA, said that the initiative is based on the directives of the wise leadership, aimed at enhancing customers’ confidence in the telecommunications sector services.
“We launched this feature that enables customers to identify the names of the calling parties, which allows them to decide whether they would like to answer the call. Moreover, it gives them a kind of reassurance when receiving the call and talking to the caller," he said.
TDRA initiated the implementation of this feature with the banking sector, to be applied to the rest of the sectors such as health, hospitality, education and other sectors on a later stage.
This feature will be applied to all private sector companies during 2022, and it will include fixed and mobile numbers registered under private sector companies.
TDRA emphasised that this feature is considered the first line of identifying the calling party, nevertheless, customers must abide by the directives of competent authorities regarding not revealing their personal information such as bank account number, PIN codes, passwords and others.