[asterisk-users] Caller ID (name) - where does it come from?

[Frank Bulk]

There's a bit of oversimplification going on here -- it's not "a ...
database".  Different CNAM providers have different databases which are
populated from many sources.  Most of the data probably matches, but not all
of it. 

If the Calling Name is incorrect, the person who received the call will have
to check with their telephony provider (or, if they do their own CNAM
lookups, with their CNAM provider) to get the name for the calling party
fixed up (this presumes that the calling party has already verified with
their own telephony provider that their name is correctly listed).  But
that's not all of it, either, because the next time the CNAM provider
refreshes their records, the local fix could be overridden (I'm not sure if
any CNAM providers have the capability to ignore old/bad data for a record,
but perhaps so).  Ideally the CNAM provider shares with the calling party
which database the CNAM provider is using for the calling party, so that the
calling party can try to get it fixed directly with the database provider
(if that's even possible).  

In short, it's a mess.  

But because accuracy rates are one of the elements that CNAM providers
compete on, these usually do get cleaned up.

Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Karl Fife
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 1:27 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Caller ID (name) - where does it come from?

The Caller ID name, "CNAM" is a separate database owned and maintained 
"cooperatively" by the bell operating companies.

Your ITSP is not doing these CNAM lookups for you because they would have to

pay the BOC's for the 'dips' into the CNAM database.  CNAM is a little cash 
cow that the BOC's are quick to protect.  As such CNAM dips may not be 
cached or re-sold as a term service that you must agree to with your CNAM 
provider.

As far as solving your CNAM problem, you would need to either choose an ITSP

that will provide you with CNAM data on a per-call basis, OR you need to do 
CNAM dips yourself as I (and many others) do.  Beware that some ITSP's 
provide "best-effort" name data culled from various sources.  It's not 
always terrible but it's not 'coke' it's more like 'dollar store' cola. :-)

As a call comes in to your dial plan you can populate the CALLERID(name) 
channel variable using the CURL function in your dialplan as so:
exten => 
s,n,Set(CALLERID(name)=${CURL(http://cnam1.edicentral.net/getcnam?q=C&f=S&dn
=${CALLERID(num)})})

AND let's not forget the completely separate issue with getting your 
ITSP-provisioned number ENTERED INTO the CNAM database in the first place, 
so people see "Karl Fife" rather than the "city, state" or worse, some 
string of arcane LATA information.  There's a solution to this problem too 
but I digress...

I've posted my personal notes below from about 18 months ago when I was 
searchign for CNAM providers:

-Karl

CNAM  PROVIDRES:

Metrostat.com
about 1.5¢ per dip,
$30 minimum deposit, refundable
CNAM service not well documented on web site
A registerd CLEC

Got Name - Out of business?
1.5¢ per dip. no minimums, no setup

ClearReach Networks
.67¢ per dip $200 monthly minimum, resell ok, significant setup fees

411xml.com
more expensive than ClearReach.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Barry D. Hassler
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 12:40 PM
Subject: [asterisk-users] Caller ID (name) - where does it come from?

Hi Folks, having an issue with outbound calls through a VOIP provider. Calls

get sent out with the CallerID(number), but where does callerID(name) come 
from? Apparently not from provider, as we are seeing different (sometime 
missing) names on inbound calls, different than what we have configured. 
Apparently this comes from some telco database somewhere? Numbers were 
ported from a wired-telco.

-- 
Barry D. Hassler
President, HCST

http://www.hcst.net/
937-427-9000

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