CNAM is a feature of the US public telephone network that associates a text name with a Caller ID (phone number). It allows users the benefits of associating their personal name or business with a phone number which can lead to increased recognition by recipients, fewer unanswered calls, and prevent calls from being flagged as spam.
SIP.US is proud to support CNAM as a standard feature included in our voice services. Once you purchase a US phone number from SIP.US, you will be able to add a CNAM entry up to 15 characters which will then be associated with that number. Receiving parties will then be able to see your CNAM when you make outbound calls with that associated phone number as your caller ID.
Example DID: 14706102875 - CNAM: SU Trunk Test
Likewise, SIP.US provides free CNAM dips on all inbound calls in the call INVITE. This can be configured to display on your phone system.
How CNAM and Caller ID works
CNAM is an optional feature of the US public telephone network. Therefore, carriers may choose whether to support CNAM at all, or offer it as a premium paid feature of their service. Most major carriers do support CNAM, but it is required by the receiving party of a call in order to display.
When you place an outbound call, you only send the numeric digits as your caller ID to the receiving carrier. No name data is transmitted. Then, the receiving carrier takes your numerical caller ID, queries a database they subscribe to, and displays the CNAM or City/State value they obtain from the national database based on the number you call from.
With SIP.US, you may choose to submit CNAM for your phone number and we will upload it to our national database provider. If you choose not to add CNAM with your number, it will display the default value of the City and State for that number.
The receiving carrier cannot change the value in the national database for the CNAM entry if they do not own the number. Therefore, if someone calls INTO your SIP.US number and you believe the name we display is in error, all we can do is look in the national database and confirm who owns the number and what value is set. If we fail to display that listed value, we can take corrective action to fix the issue.
If you call someone FROM your SIP.US number, and they report that the name they are receiving is not correct, you can report that to us. We will ensure we have loaded the correct value into the national database. Then over the period of about a week, most carriers will show that new value. Once the value in the database is correct, that is all SIP.US can address.
How to Update Your CNAM
To update the CNAM value for your numbers, navigate to the DID page in your SIP.US Customer Portal. Use the pencil button next to the desired DID to edit it and fill out the CNAM field. Click submit and we will update the database!
Exclusions and Notes
- The maximum limit for CNAM is 15 characters.
- Inappropriate language and fraud violates our ToS.
- Toll Free CNAM is not guaranteed.
- CNAM does not exist for Canadian numbers.
- CNAM does not exist for international numbers.
- CNAM updates take up to 5 days to fully propagate due to the decentralized nature of CNAM.
Related Articles
- Refer to the following article on Setting Up Caller ID to complete your CNAM implementation.
- Read this article for troubleshooting Calls Showing Up as Scam Likely & Potential Spam.