Outbound CNAM (aka CNAM Storage)

VoIP Innovations offers both inbound and outbound CNAM options. This article contains information regarding outbound CNAM. For information regarding inbound CNAM, click here.

Outbound CNAM is also known as outbound Caller ID or CNAM storage. Records (names) associated with telephone numbers are stored in a national database. When a call is received from that number, a lookup is performed to retrieve and display the associated record. While it is possible to pass a name in the SIP Header in the From field, this information is not guaranteed, as it could be stripped once it hits the PSTN. A Wireshark capture is provided later in this article which illustrate caller ID name being passed in the message header.

It is important to note that displaying Caller ID is the responsibility of the receiving phone company. For example, if you call a Verizon number, it is Verizon's responsibility to display the correct information. It is common practice among phone companies to cache Caller ID information. This means you may have differing results calling different destinations. The only way to correct a record you believe is incorrect is to open a ticket with the company receiving the call.

Assume as an example that you have Outbound CNAM set up for DID 4122007430 as XYZ COMPANY. When you place a call with the Caller ID set as 4122007430, the receiving company grabs the telephone number from the SIP Header From field and should display XYZ COMPANY but instead displays JOHN DOE. The first thing you should do is log into the Back Office, navigate to the DID, and open the DID Configuration Wizard. To do so, click the DIDs tab and select Manage DIDs. Enter the number in the search box under the TN column and click outside the box (or hit enter on your keyboard). Once the number is located, click the "Configure" to launch the DID Configuration Wizard. You will see Outbound CNAM and a text box. If the name displayed is incorrect, you can update the information by changing the text box to the desired name and clicking the Save Changes button.

*Please note, updating caller ID can take upwards of 48 business hours to fully propagate. ** If, however, you see the expected *Display Name, open a ticket with support. (If you need assistance contacting support, click here.) Please include in your ticket, the DID that you have set Outbound CNAM for and the Name you configured for the DID. You can also include when you entered this information in the Back Office for the number.

Upon receiving your ticket, our Support team will verify the information you provide by confirming the record is stored in our database and has been pushed to our CNAM vendor. If we confirm the information has been successfully pushed to our vendor, we then check our own dip vendor and verify if they are displaying the correct information. If both our CNAM vendor and CNAM Dip vendor (which are separate entities) verify the correct information, you will need to contact the receiving phone company doing the dip.

Note that even companies, which cache this information, typically set an expiration on the cache. Although, we cannot say with certainty when that will be. Even if you report five separate phone companies displaying incorrect information, if we verify with our CNAM vendor and CNAM dip vendor that the information is correct, we are unable to assist with getting those five companies to display it correctly. Our suggestion is to open a ticket with one company doing it wrong and monitor. Our experience has been that once one corrects it, the others shortly follow suit.

Since Outbound CNAM occurs on the DID itself, only certain carriers support this feature. As such, if this feature is important to you, you will need to ensure you choose DIDs capable of supporting this when ordering new DIDs from the purchase page and if you port numbers in. The LNP Submission Tool provides you with the option to pick the required features when porting numbers to VoIP Innovations so choose carefully.
**There are no additional charges for Outbound CNAM. All you need do to take advantage of this feature is choose DIDs that support it. **

If you purchase a number from or port a number to a carrier that doesn't support Outbound CNAM, the feature will not work. The only way to enable Outbound CNAM for a DID that does not support this feature is to port the number to a carrier that does. Normal porting fees would apply.

It is also important to understand what happens when you enter Outbound CNAM for a DID in the Back Office and the propagation time involved. When you enter new information, or update a DID to a new name, this information is immediately entered in our internal database. We then push this information to our CNAM vendor once a day (typically once a night). Once the information has been pushed to the vendor, it takes approximately 48 business hours for the information to begin displaying correctly on dips. You must allow this propagation time to take affect before contacting support. Our system logs the time the information is entered which is something we check if you open a ticket with us. If we determine the record is not on file with our vendor, we will take the necessary action to correct this.

If you decide you no longer need or want Outbound CNAM on a DID, you can completely remove the record from our system. This will also update with our vendor and be removed from their database as well. Again, keep in mind that many phone companies cache this information and may still display the old name due to this practice.

If you have a DID on your account that does not support Outbound CNAM but are getting reports of old information displaying on dips, we can open a ticket with our carrier. We can request that they reset the information to a default Rate Center/State. Some of our carriers can assist with this while others cannot. We will make every effort to push our carriers when possible but ultimately, their position on whether they can assist or not is final.
There are two methods for adding Outbound CNAM information to DIDs. You can either do it one DID at a time, or you can do it in bulk.

To add Outbound CNAM information in bulk, click the DIDs Tab and select Caller ID under Bulk Update Tools. The resulting page contains an area wherein you can enter up to 100 Name/Number combinations. Your entries MUST be in the proper format to be entered in our database. This format is Name,Number for EACH entry. Examples are provided on the page. Additionally, you must enter numbers that both support the feature AND are on your account with us. If either one of these criteria are not met, an error will be returned stating such. Once you have entered all the desired information, click the Process Bulk Caller ID button. Clicking this button will return all the information you entered along with confirmation or rejection errors.
To update existing Caller ID information for a single DID, click DIDs -> Manage DIDs -> Search for the specific TN and click "Configure". In the box for Outbound CNAM, change the name to reflect what you'd like it to be then click Save Changes. To completely remove Outbound CNAM information for a DID, navigate to the desired number, remove the text and click the Save Changes button. The VI processes and required propagation time apply the same to updated information as to new information.
Regardless of which method you use to enter Outbound CNAM information, your entries are limited to 15 characters including spaces. For example, you could enter ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO or ABC DEF GHI JKL. When entering information from the DID edit window, the text box will not allow you to type past 15 characters. When using the bulk tool, the information you enter will be truncated to 15 characters if your entries exceed this number. This is a limitation set by the industry and cannot be changed.

Passing a Name in an outbound INVITE has no effect on inbound dips. Notice in the Wireshark capture the Name in the From Field of the SIP Header

When VoIP Innovations does the dip on the inbound portion of the call, the correct name is displayed which is the record on file for the number


To add Outbound CNAM information to a single DID, click the DIDs Tab and select Manage DIDs and navigate to the desired number

Open

Use the Search Filter to assist in finding the desired number. Click the pen/pad to edit the DID.

Open

Enter the desired Outbound Display Name in the text box and click the 'Save Caller ID' button

DIDs that do not support Outbound CNAM will not allow you to edit the Outbound Display Name, and it will inform you of this.

To add Outbound CNAM information in bulk, select the DIDs tab and select Caller ID.

Ensure you are using proper format and click the 'Process Bulk Caller ID' button to add your entries

The Bulk Tool Results will confirm successful entries and provide appropriate errors

All Outbound CNAM entries have a 15-character limit; this includes spaces. Bulk entries exceeding the 15-character limit will be truncated