atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Inter-Tel Telephones & Systems Calling Party Name

Hi,

Our B2B department wants to be able to display a different name and number on outbound Caller-ID.

I have called our carrier XO Communications and unlocked the ability to transmit any one of our DIDs as the Calling Party Number. However, the Calling Party Name remains our company name no matter what I enter.

Doing some research, it appears that the name is looked up in several different databases (LIDB/CNAM) based on the number sent. This system sounds draconian but the US telephone network is what it is.

When I asked whether they could issue a new DID with a different Calling Party Name, the technician stonewalled me. Is this normal practice for carriers? Has anyone ever needed to do the same?

Thanks,
ltctech

I am having the same problem. The T1 vendor can't do anything and Inter-tel Tier 2 support has been no help either. I asked the Sales team for help becasue the feature must have worked somehow/someway when they developed it but noone seems to know anything.
If you get it work please post 'how' because we are wanting to do the same thing.

I'm getting the run-a-round on this too. Our Inter-Tel vendor, AT&T and Time-Warner all three saying 'We set up right, somebody else wrong'. All we're trying to do is get our CALLER ID set up to show the Corp. Name to our customers (or any called party).

Apparently this has at least three floating variables, anyone got any pointers?

It doesn't matter which brand of phone system that is being used and it also isn't a limitation of the service provider. It is a limitation set forth by the FCC to prevent "spoofing" of caller ID information. All name translations are performed in CNAM lookup databases. You just can't alter anything that is displayed in outgoing CID information except the actual number. Many service providers also won't let you display any number if it isn't associated with the account's billing.

Keep in mind that if this were allowed, it would be very easy for a competitor to display YOUR name in the outgoing information, then make annoying or misleading calls to your customers. The bottom line is that the only name that can be displayed is the one that is on the phone bill.

So, if receiving callers (our customers, vendors, etc.) are not getting our name, it's AT&T's issue?
(In our case, AT&T our LD Provider.)

What system level of software and type of T-1? On a PRI with a newer 5000 you can put anything in the name and number and it will repeat it. Calling party name and number under station if you have a supporting version, put something in and call from that ext to the outside world and see what you get
Randy

You sure about that Randy? I understand that you can manipulate incoming name/number displays, but how in the world can an end-user's phone system circumvent the national CNAM databases where the LEC/CLEC provides the BTN data?

I'm very curious now because I get requests for this all the time.

Oh, and Carmac: The local service provider establishes the billing name for your service. If you have a T1 directly to at&t for only long distance (unswitched), then they provide the CNAM information separately.

A Qwest T-1 or Qwest I-A when our office orders it, it will allow us to put in the name and number in our phone system to out pulse to the person we are calling. If we leave the fields blank it will default to the main account info in Qwest records.
Randy

Normally, you can always set up any outgoing number that is one of your DIDs assigned to your PRI/T-1 here. Not just the BTN.

In 90% of the cases, ANY outgoing number is allowed until someone complains to the carrier and then they restrict to just the DIDs on the circuit. Same with SIP trunks.

The reason most customers want 'ANY' is that they want caller ID passed through on externally forwarded calls.

I eventually got XO communications to issue a new DID with our subsidiary's calling party name. Although I cannot dynamically change the name, it does what it needs to do. I guess I got a paranoid tech support guy the first time.

XO does force us to call out using our DIDs, anything else will result in reorder tones. This has its limitations as there are times when we work with business partners and using their CID when dialing out would be beneficial. Also forwarding on CID externally would be great, but again XO is too paranoid. I think they are able to get away with it cause we are using Flex (PRI over VOIP), so its not a true T1.

Regarding CNAM look up, I think there are exceptions. We have a satellite office that uses a Response Point system with Covista communications. I can set the CNAM in the system to anything, however the number remains the same. When I call our phones running on XO, the name appears exactly as entered on the RP. I am thinking that since they are both VOIP systems that they may actually be capable of transmitting CNAM.