Vonage Outbound Caller ID - Not Supported!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 21, 2008 Posts: 1

I can't believe Vonage doesn't yet support Outbound Calller ID. Their competitive analysis on their site lists Caller ID as a feature against AT&T and Verizon, but that analysis is not correct and should be footnoted (Incoming Caller ID only).

I called Vonage Customer Service today and they confirmed that Outbound Caller ID is not available yet. If I am not correct, can someone please let me know how I can enable this.

MartinOg
http://martinogs.blogspot.com/2008/11/vonage-service-outbound-caller-id-not.html

Posts: 656 · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject:

You are correct. There is no Outbound caller ID.

Now next question since you are obviously a Telcom genius and understand what it takes to provide name on caller ID.

1) How much more would you be will to pay Vonage each month for you bill?

To add this feature would not be free and would probably increase the rate plan by more then 5 dollars a month. What everyone does not understand is that Vonage does not have LEC status. They do not own a CNAM database nor do they own the phone numbers they provide their customers. These are leased lines from the Inbound LEC's that terminate calls to Vonage. There are many carriers and depending upon your NPA-NXX, this is how it is determined which carrier's switch your number will be built into.

In order to provide name on caller ID, Vonage would have to set up an agreement with each of these carriers and every subscriber that Vonage gets, they would have to send an update to the provider who owns the number to populate that carriers CNAM database with the Vonage customer's Account Name. Then each time a customer canceled, the name would have to be removed and the process would recycle each time the number is re-issued. All of this has cost in addition to the maintenance fees that would need to be paid to maintain the database.

The biggest problem with Vonage or any standalone Voip company is the 3rd party dependencies that are needed. You cannot compare a Ma Bell company that has been established over 100 years to a Voip company that has been around less then 10. AT&T, Verizon, SBC, Qwest, etc... all terminate both their own inbound and outbound calls and have their own CNAM databases. Vonage has certain carriers to terminate inbound calls and other carriers to terminate outbound calls and highly depend upon these LEC's to get the job done. This includes the passing and storing of caller ID.

So if everyone who now pays 24.99 for their unlimited calls and loves it because it saves money, would be willing to pay 34.99 for the same rate plan but to now have outbound caller ID name, I am sure Vonage would set up a program with this carriers to get this done. Only issue then would be customer base and growth. There would be less people signing on and more people leaving if the margin of savings narrowed between Vonage and the Telcom giants.

Posts: 830 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 830

VonTechMgr wrote:

So if everyone who now pays 24.99 for their unlimited calls and loves it because it saves money, would be willing to pay 34.99 for the same rate plan but to now have outbound caller ID name, I am sure Vonage would set up a program with this carriers to get this done. Only issue then would be customer base and growth. There would be less people signing on and more people leaving if the margin of savings narrowed between Vonage and the Telcom giants.

Actually, if you were to get the same features that Vonage provides (less the outbound caller ID), you would pay 50.00 to 60.00 per month for your Ma Bell service.

Vonage, like the cell phone companies and others takes advantage of laws that allow/require Ma Bell or Baby Bells to provide ports to their service. That does not mean they must provide all of the proprietary serices they can provide (with or without additional charges.)

I am saving around $400.00 per year (incl. tax) and really do not care about outbound caller ID. If it is important to you, then go back to Ma Bell at 39.95 for a featured service plus 15.00 for 500 minutes of LD plus tax (my previous situation.)

Posts: 1327 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1327

I think Vonage should state that on the website instead of stating caller ID, they should say inbound caller ID. I always figured both incoming and outgoing should be included, well before coming to Vonage. Thanks for the lesson.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject:

Option A: Vonage pays nothing to build a CNAM database, it's customers lack outbound Caller ID.

Option B: Vonage pays to build a CNAM database, charges its customers $10/mo more to have outbound Caller ID.

But it seems to me that you left out one more choice.

Option C: Vonage pays to build a CNAM database, paid for out of Vonage's profits and shareholder investments, Vonage customers continue to pay the same fees without increases.

What was not mentioned was that earlier this month Vonage reported a PROFIT of $15 million for the third quarter, and that their profits increased over last quarter and same quarter last year. Further, Vonage also reported in their third quarter SEC filings that the average direct cost per line for the 3rd quarter was $7.20, and the average per-line revenue from existing customers was $28.75, and was $27.52 after subtracting the cost of promotions. This means that Vonage is making a profit of over $20 per month per customer.

It would appear to me that Vonage has that $10/mo per customer to spare without becoming unprofitable. And, in doing so, it would not only put them more on-par with their traditional landline competitors, it would put them ahead of their Voip competitors as well.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 5

Some one mentioned why not sign up with another company and pay $50 a month to get this feature. I upgraded to the Vonage small business plan paying $50 a month and expected this feature - I mean what business does NOT want their name to show on the phone? I expected paying more would give me this but it did not. I have been waiting for years now with Vonage saying 'they are working on it'. Vonage should be honest and tell us straight out they are not working on it. I feel ripped off. If they can't or aren't willing to do this then don't act like it is coming soon. There are threads on this topic over 4 years old now. I feel Vonage is being dis-honest about this topic.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

The truth is it is being discussed. Period. The best course and design of how it should be implemented has been in the works. However, there have been many obstacles such as the past lawsuits that forced other priorities. Then over the past year, there has been the issue of development work thrown at PCI compliance which is a must by the Payment Card Industry. Every company that bills by credit card and bank must comply by the end of the year. This is where 100% focus is right now.

There is no time frame of when outbound CID will be available. Asking Customer Care when something will be released will not provide you with answers. They do not know anything about infrastructure, changes, or future plans. They are not provided with this type of information until the product is actually released.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:08 pm Post subject:

Perhaps it is a syndrome of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it has always bothered me somewhat that Vonage tends to lack on certain features (outbound caller ID, anonymous call rejection) that other Voip and POTS services can provide. Maybe it is because those companies are sacrificing something else in order to give consumers those features, but who knows.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 26, 2008 Posts: 1

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Hi. I am a new member and have been searching for the same answer to the outgoing caller ID name display. Let me say now, that I am far from a telcom genius, nor am I an IT person, or the like, but I found something that may just work.

It is a "List Yourself" registry where you can list your name number and Voip provider, and register to have your name listed. I did this this morning. The service calls your phone to verify, then gives you a confirmation number to enter into your phone. They claim you must wait 72 hours for activation. I'm not sure if this has been tried already by existing members of the forum, and forgive me if this is a duplicate effort.

But if not, it's worth a try.

Here is the link: http://www.listyourself.net/listing.jsp?ID=new

Posts: 656 · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:45 am Post subject:

A listing service is only for 411 directory assistance databases since this is a thing most Voip providers do not do due to this being a feature only offered by the local telco. This will not populate CNAM to a database therefore will not change your outgoing caller ID.