Inbound Caller ID Delivery (U.S.A Caller ID with Name)

Inbound CNAM (Inbound U.S.A Caller ID with Name Delivery)

Inbound CNAM allows a phone number to request (referred to as a dip) the incoming caller's name and phone number. This feature can be enabled and disabled on a per telephone number (DID) basis from within Voradian’s platform.

Please also be aware that this article is not relevant for Canadian DID services. For information about CNAM for a Canadian DID, please refer to our Canada CNAM article. If you would like to know more about outbound CNAM and how to make changes, please take a look at our Outbound CNAM Storage article.

What is CNAM?

CNAM (short for Caller ID Name) refers to the name of the person (or business) that is placing a phone call. While CNAM is enabled, CNAM-supported phones that receive a call will be provided with the caller's name and phone number. It is common for telephone carriers to update one of the multiple authoritative databases with subscriber data, and these databases are referred to as CNAM repositories.

While other services offer name data for a phone number, CNAM refers to data that is retrieved from official carrier-supplied sources. To ensure compatibility with all CNAM-supported phones, the CNAM values (what is displayed on a phone when receiving a call) cannot exceed more than 15 characters.

When an Inbound CNAM is enabled for your telephone number or DID, when another phone number calls your phone number, a dip (search) will be performed to locate that inbound caller's name and phone number. If that information is found in the database, it will be delivered to your phone’s display.

What if there are issues with CNAM?

There are potential issues around CNAM because there is not a single database that stores all of the information at once. Most CNAM providers use some level of data sharing to compile the required information. It is always up to the termination provider to troubleshoot CNAM issues, though we may be able to assist with lookups on your outbound DIDs.

If you submit a ticket, Voradian Support can assist with troubleshooting and resolving CNAM issues. Possible issues can include CNAM not working at all, or even CNAM showing incorrect information. Our procedure is to perform CNAM dips to 6 major CNAM providers; the information that is returned will reasonably tell us the following:

If CNAM is identical across all sources, this indicates CNAM is accurate (despite what information is being provided by the reporter).

If CNAM differs from all sources, this indicates that CNAM is not actually provisioned.

If CNAM is missing in more than one source, this indicates the CNAM may be new and has not propagated, OR not all sources have access to this information.

If CNAM is correct at more than one source, but not correct from our source, this may indicate that CNAM is not yet propagated or our CNAM source does not have the correct information.

If CNAM shows ‘Wireless Caller,’ or a City and State, it indicates that CNAM is not provisioned for the incoming DID or calling party.

CNAM issues are resolved on a case-by-case basis; we will provide DIP results of our testing and explain the possible courses of action, which may include:

Support staff can place an override on a DID, which will apply to future incoming calls from that DID. This only works for inbound calls because the termination provider (caller’s phone service provider) must handle incoming traffic.

Explain DIP information and recommend that the DID owner (caller) provision CNAM.

Our CNAM provider will work on finding large-scale issues if many examples can be provided showing other providers have the correct information but they do not. This is not a likely scenario but could potentially impact a specific carrier or NPA-NXX. In most cases, we need to provide over 25 examples with information proving a specific issue.

If you have questions or require assistance, please open a ticket with Voradian support center or email us at: support@voradian.com.