New feature request: name shows up on CLID of called party

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 15, 2005 Posts: 4

I'm suprised that the feature "my name shows up in CLID of called party, not only my number and the word "unavailable" doesn't seem to be a prominent request in this forum.

I'm a new Vonage customer... just got the router out of the box 20 minutes ago and made my first call. I'm an enthusiastic adopter, having worked in the IETF on protocol standards related to VoIP... but not having my name show up on called party CLID is potentially a deal breaker for me. I'm ready to put the router back in the box and ship it back.

I guess I'm just particular, but when I call my mom or my friends, I want them to KNOW it is me without having to memorize my number. I know that I, as a rule, ignore calls that come up "Unknown" or "Unavailable", since my experience is that nearly all of these are telemarketing related calls of one form or another.

Can someone from Vonage comment on why this particular feature is so problematic?

Regards,
Phill

Posts: 66

pconrad0 wrote:

I'm suprised that the feature "my name shows up in CLID of called party, not only my number and the word "unavailable" doesn't seem to be a prominent request in this forum.

I've mentioned it in other forums, it does irritate me. I called someone a few weeks ago and it came up "out of area" and the person I called almost didn't answer.

Jim

Posts: 48 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 48

I found this forum only because I was looking for more information on outgoing CLID name posting. It's my biggest complaint. How can we do without it?

On another thread in this very forum people are asking for anonymous call rejection! Yet if Vonage implements that before they add outgoing CLID name, Vonage to Vonage calls would be blocked using ACR. How does that make sense at all? I too, have had people not answer the phone simply because they thought I was a telemarketer.

My understanding from reading other forums (I'm no expert but I do read) is that the outgoing name is easily programmed into your phone adapter, but Vonage locks the adapter so that the user can't change it. (This is apparently done to prevent using your "free" adapter on other Voip services.) When I logon to my RT31P2, I can see the string that's getting used which for me is just a duplicate of my phone number. It would seem to me that setting outgoing CLID name shouldn't be very difficult.

If people are going to look at their caller ID and not pick up my call, I want it to be because they know it is me, instead of the other way around. Wink

Posts: 49 · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:01 am Post subject:

I just found this out when I called a friend. If they are going to supply my number, then why not my name? Or, at least, duplicate my phone # as the name. Many people are reluctant to pick up an "unknown" name and many will not even glance at the number when they see that.

Posts: 1424

seeker_ktf wrote:

Yet if Vonage implements that before they add outgoing CLID name, Vonage to Vonage calls would be blocked using ACR. How does that make sense at all?

This is incorrect. Vonage is not withholding caller ID information, the name provided is simply incorrect. ACR should block calls when the caller ID number is not provided.

seeker_ktf wrote:

My understanding from reading other forums (I'm no expert but I do read) is that the outgoing name is easily programmed into your phone adapter, but Vonage locks the adapter so that the user can't change it. (This is apparently done to prevent using your "free" adapter on other Voip services.) When I logon to my RT31P2, I can see the string that's getting used which for me is just a duplicate of my phone number. It would seem to me that setting outgoing CLID name shouldn't be very difficult.

This is mostly incorrect. Yes, the adapter contains a name field along with your SIP id. This would be used, I believe, in Vonage to Vonage calls. Calls carried over the PSTN do not have caller name sent with the signal information. The name is retrieved from a database by the called party's phone company. It is this database that Vonage is not populating with subscriber information.

In this forums you can read about people changing their caller ID name for SoftPhone calls by modifying the SoftPhone program. It is my belief that this only works for Vonage to Vonage calls and that they are testing by calling their primary line. I can not come up with a scenario where this information survives once the call is switched onto a PSTN.

You will also see messages where people say that caller ID name works to their cell phone or some other phone. It is my opinion that these people are seeing the name that is stored in their phone's address book, or in some cases in an override database supplied by the phone company. A local CLEC, CavTel, provides a service that allows you to override the caller ID name on incoming calls. To see how they allow customers to override data via the web google for the terms: cavtel caller id name.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 15, 2005 Posts: 4

I sent a message to Vonage Customer Care asking "whether" and "when" the called party CLID problem would be addressed, and their reply is posted below.

(Specifically, I asked them about the problem of "no name information" or "incorrect name information" on the caller id of the called party when making outbound calls from Vonage phones.)

Here is their reply to me:

Dear Vonage Customer,

Thank you for contacting Customer Care. In reference to your email.

Our System engineers are looking into this, and we feel it is
something we can address early in the coming year.

Posts: 10 · Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:51 pm Post subject:

Don't expect many new features from Vonage. They are busy trying to expand their footprint before selling off. The more subscribers they have, the more money they will receive in an IPO or sale. New features do not increase revenue at the moment.

Posts: 48 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 48

Quote:

This is mostly incorrect. Yes, the adapter contains a name field along with your SIP id. This would be used, I believe, in Vonage to Vonage calls. Calls carried over the PSTN do not have caller name sent with the signal information. The name is retrieved from a database by the called party's phone company. It is this database that Vonage is not populating with subscriber information.

I'm not qualified to disagree with you but there are two things about this topic I really don't understand. Again, I'm not arguing it's just that all of these facts together don't make sense. First, I have read numerous articles about people spoofing their number on outgoing calls for scamming purposes (non-Vonage). And second, how does a feature like *70 (outgoing caller ID block) work if no digital information can be sent with the call? That is, how does the called party's phone company know not to retrieve the information from the database? Both of these somehow make me think that there's a way to change things from the origin. It's probably just wishful thinking.

On the other hand, if all Vonage need to do is populate the database, then it's even more frustrating, since the "little tiny nobody" phone companies don't seem to have a problem with it.

Posts: 10 · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:15 am Post subject:

Number spoofing can be done a few ways. Some Voip companies allow the user to set their ANI name. That is the easiest way because they just go in through the web portal and change the string. No technical knowledge required. Other Voip companies rely on other companies to carry their Voip traffic and be the gateway to the PSTN. In those cases Voip passes to the carrier and they convert it to the PSTN. When the call is answered the receiving switch sends a SS7 message to look up the name in a distributed database.

Spoofing Voip to Voip calls is easier because this transition does not take place. Depending on the originating carrier, either the subscriber can send the name information or the application server via SIP. Most carriers like to retain the control of the call by using application servers. The app. server will send the correct name information to the other end.

The philosophy in the PSTN days was to keep the terminal equipment simple. No intelligence in the phone. The network/switch has the smarts. So the phone tells the switch to block the ANI which passes SS7 messages along to the other end. The switch at the other end recognizes the message not to provide this information to the called party. Remember that it still receives this information for its billing purposes. Just that the end user never sees it.

In the Voip world it may or may not be the same. The large established carriers want to keep this model of the network being intelligent for the most part. MGCP and H.248 were designed around a server managing the session. SIP is more flexible allowing network centric call management or peer-to-peer call management. Implementation of CID varies from network to network and call type. Peer-to-Peer calls via Skype are handled different than Vonage VoIP-to-VoIP calls. Skype users can spoof their identity because they have control over their ID while Vonage users are defined by Vonage. Vonage has designed their network to work more like the PSTN in many ways.

I hope this helps a bit. Some of my knowledge of SS7 is a bit rusty.

Posts: 48 · Full Forum Member Joined: Sep 22, 2005 Posts: 48

It was a great description. So then, for Vonage to non-Vonage calls, all they need to do is update the database. Very annoying. My dad is 87 and I don't expect him to memorize my phone number. Half of the time when I call, he doesn't answer it because he thinks I'm a telemarketer. For Vonage to Vonage calls, my number gets stuffed into in the name field. That's effectively the same as making it "unavailable" since there's no ACR on Vonage anyway.