There's a bit of oversimplification going on here -- it's not "a ... database". Different CNAM providers have different databases which are populated from many sources. Most of the data probably matches, but not all of it.
If the Calling Name is incorrect, the person who received the call will have to check with their telephony provider (or, if they do their own CNAM lookups, with their CNAM provider) to get the name for the calling party fixed up (this presumes that the calling party has already verified with their own telephony provider that their name is correctly listed). But that's not all of it, either, because the next time the CNAM provider refreshes their records, the local fix could be overridden (I'm not sure if any CNAM providers have the capability to ignore old/bad data for a record, but perhaps so). Ideally the CNAM provider shares with the calling party which database the CNAM provider is using for the calling party, so that the calling party can try to get it fixed directly with the database provider (if that's even possible). In short, it's a mess. But because accuracy rates are one of the elements that CNAM providers compete on, these usually do get cleaned up. Frank -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Karl Fife Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 1:27 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Caller ID (name) - where does it come from? The Caller ID name, "CNAM" is a separate database owned and maintained "cooperatively" by the bell operating companies. Your ITSP is not doing these CNAM lookups for you because they would have to pay the BOC's for the 'dips' into the CNAM database. CNAM is a little cash cow that the BOC's are quick to protect. As such CNAM dips may not be cached or re-sold as a term service that you must agree to with your CNAM provider. As far as solving your CNAM problem, you would need to either choose an ITSP that will provide you with CNAM data on a per-call basis, OR you need to do CNAM dips yourself as I (and many others) do. Beware that some ITSP's provide "best-effort" name data culled from various sources. It's not always terrible but it's not 'coke' it's more like 'dollar store' cola. :-) As a call comes in to your dial plan you can populate the CALLERID(name) channel variable using the CURL function in your dialplan as so: exten => s,n,Set(CALLERID(name)=${CURL(http://cnam1.edicentral.net/getcnam?q=C&f=S&dn =${CALLERID(num)})}) AND let's not forget the completely separate issue with getting your ITSP-provisioned number ENTERED INTO the CNAM database in the first place, so people see "Karl Fife" rather than the "city, state" or worse, some string of arcane LATA information. There's a solution to this problem too but I digress... I've posted my personal notes below from about 18 months ago when I was searchign for CNAM providers: -Karl CNAM PROVIDRES: Metrostat.com about 1.5¢ per dip, $30 minimum deposit, refundable CNAM service not well documented on web site A registerd CLEC Got Name - Out of business? 1.5¢ per dip. no minimums, no setup ClearReach Networks .67¢ per dip $200 monthly minimum, resell ok, significant setup fees 411xml.com more expensive than ClearReach. ----- Original Message ----- From: Barry D. Hassler To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 12:40 PM Subject: [asterisk-users] Caller ID (name) - where does it come from? Hi Folks, having an issue with outbound calls through a VOIP provider. Calls get sent out with the CallerID(number), but where does callerID(name) come from? Apparently not from provider, as we are seeing different (sometime missing) names on inbound calls, different than what we have configured. Apparently this comes from some telco database somewhere? Numbers were ported from a wired-telco. -- Barry D. Hassler President, HCST http://www.hcst.net/ 937-427-9000 _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users