Vonage Caller ID issue

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 08, 2004 Posts: 14

When I call someone from my Vonage line, their caller id says "out of area" and the phone number. How come their caller id doesn't say my name instead of "out of area".

Is anyone else experiencing this? Or is Vonage just not able to send the name on on account when making a call.

Posts: 37 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 12, 2004 Posts: 37

I belive it can be worse than what you experienced. I've read on this or another forum that the name often does show as "Vonage Digital Voice" or something like that. I'd rather have no name show than Vonage's name.

Posts: 14 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 08, 2004 Posts: 14

Ya, I get the name and number if someone calls me, but when I call someone they tell my that it says "Out of Area" and the number.

I'm sure Vonage can fix this since they must have a database of its customers like the landline companies?

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 09, 2004 Posts: 10

I called a friend last night, and she said it showed up as "Illinois Call" with the number. Now everyone is going to think I'm a telemarketer.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 28, 2004 Posts: 25

Last I heard Vonage is working on the Caller ID outbound. Meaning ....

Example:
Vonage customer calls a PSTN line customer - PSTN customer sees only #

PSTN line customer calls a Vonage customer - Vonage customer sees name and #(working correctly/way it should work)

Again, they working on it.

Hope this helps.

Posts: 104 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 31, 2004 Posts: 104

Caller Name display is referred to as CNAM.

>> Incoming call to you
On an inbound call to you, Vonage receives only the AIN or caller line telephone information. They then make an external inquiry to a 3rd party database (a number of companies offer this service to telecom operators), get the known name and insert it in the VoIP signal sent to your Cisco/Mot box which in turns signals it to your Caller Line ID display.

These inquiry databases charge on a per query basis. Thus Vonage is paying to someone to get the name. The database services glean information from a variety of sources (including the local telephone company). But there is often a lag and it's not usual for it not to get a "hit" every time. Because of the sources these folks search, I've started see Name display for folks calling me from wireless phones (your wireless operator didn't provide the info, but the database company found it nonetheless).

>> Outbound call from you
This is where is get difficult. Vonage is NOT a telephone company in fact the telephone number you have is typically 'owned' by one of two CLEC's that Vonage works with. Thus for YOUR number to be reported with a name. Your CLEC would have to report YOUR NAME. Since the CLEC has no clue who 'you' are, they can't report it. Vonage may be figuring a way through this but risk being deemed a telephone company (which they have no interest in) rather than an information service.

The person you're calling will be able to display your telephone number but depending upon that called person's telephone company the display may say, UNKNOWN NAME or using the area code information insert the STATE name (e.g. ILLINOIS or UTAH). This is at the option of the receiving person telephone company.