Outbound Caller ID Issue - Correct for Some; Unknown for Others

[muranskycotech]

I have CUCM 7.1.5 and am having some sort of issue with outbound Caller ID. Specifically... I have 500 DID's matching up with 500 internal numbers, all assigned to our PRI circuits. In all cases, I know it is sending the correct string out, because I can call my cell phone (Sprint) from any phone and it shows the correct 10-digit DID. For called parties on some carriers (AT&T, for example) it shows as "Business Name" and the appropriate DID as well. However, I have one specific carrier (Armstrong) in our region that ALWAYS shows the Caller ID as "Unknown Caller".

Armstrong insists that it's an issue with our carrier not sending the right information on the right channel (something cryptic about A/B/C/D channels), but I have a hard time believing their claim since I see it properly everywhere else. AT&T says that I control what's sent out through UCM (number-wise, that's correct, I've seen no evidence to support that's true in terms of the "name" display).

So the question I have is... what should I be expressing when talking to AT&T (my PRI carrier) and Armstrong that will get them to properly understand the issue? Also, is there anything on my end that I can check to see if it might really be my issue or prove that it's their issue?

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

There are two separate components to Caller ID: Automatic Number Identification (ANI aka Caller ID Number) and Caller Name (CNAM aka Caller ID Name). When you call an Armstrong number, do they see the ANI at least and just CNAM is missing or do they see nothing at all?

Either way the problem is out of your hands and needs to be handled by the translations teams at AT&T and Armstrong but depending on the answer I can try and fill in a few more details for you. Note translations teams are rarely customer facing; you'll likely need to yell pretty loud or get your state PSC involved to fix this.

[muranskycotech]

Thanks for your response, Jonathan!

When we call Armstrong, they don't see ANI or CNAM. It simply says, "Unknown Caller". But as I said, when we call other AT&T business or, for example, my Sprint cell phone, we do see the number along with the AT&T registered business name (in this case Surgery Center at Southwoods). This is true of all the carriers I've tested (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc).

[Clifford McGlamry]

Unfortunately, AT&T is famous for abusing it's customers with crap like this.

While it is possilble to pass the name information on a PRI to the carrier, I have NEVER seen an instance where AT&T would honor, or even accept it.  Depending on the interconnectivity between AT&T and Armstrong, they may be getting number only (and having to pull the name out of the database...used to be provided by GTE), or number and ANI.  If it's a real old lash up, they might not even be getting ANI, but that would be unusual.

It would be helpful for you to find out if there are any other AT&T customers in your area that CAN call a subscriber on Armstrong's network and have it work...preferably one of the numbers that doesn't work for you.  If it works for them, but not for you, it's likely an AT&T issue.  If it doesn't work for either one of you, it is more likely on the Armstrong side.

Problems like this can be Central Office Switch specific (so one of AT&T's switches might have the issue, and another might not), or may affect the entire area.  They can be extremely difficult to deal with, and the Customer Abuse (AT&T refers to it as customer service) department at AT&T will generally deny all accountability.

If you really need to resolve this, you'll need to get a ticket open with both AT&T and Armstrong (you'll have to have an end station that can open the one with Armstrong) and force everyone to work together to identify and resolve it.  If they refuse, your option is to tell AT&T if they won't fix it, you'll switch carriers and follow through on the threat if they don't.  That seems to be about the only thing they do understand.

[muranskycotech]

Well, on the one hand, I do generally agree with your thoughts on AT&T. Certainly the worst company ever, IMO.

I'm not 100% sure until I test in the morning, but I believe that this is only affecting my new block of 500 DID's and that my old DID's are still reporting properly. I will report that in the morning. In the mean time, I also know that AT&T and Armstrong don't show accurate information, because at one of my other locations my Armstrong numbers don't show properly on the AT&T side (but do for everyone else).

Certainly I believe this to ultimately be an AT&T issue, BUT, I need to be armed with as many technical details as possible when I call them back, because otherwise they will transfer me around until I give up or they'll make up excuses why it's someone else's problem to correct.

[muranskycotech]

OK, well, some time later, this issue persists. However, the plot thickens!

It turns out, it's Armstrong in my local area only. Calling their corporate office in Pennsylvania (I'm in northeast Ohio) works just fine, and they get the appropriate name and display. Also, it turns out that AT&T Wireless is also subject to displaying "Unknown" for the display instead of receiving the number for Caller ID.

I've gone back and forth with companies for months on this and it's driving me insane and upsetting my executives and many of our patients. Can anyone offer any additional information on what I should be looking for with this type of issue?

[Joseph Thvedt]

I know this is an ancient thread, but this problem only recently popped up for us. It would often happen if an iPhone had voice over LTE enabled. We also had a case where turning on WiFi calling triggered the problem.

One really odd behavior was that switching on voice over LTE caused "unknown" caller ID from our CUCM 10.5 system, but reversing that setting didn't fix it. If we went into our wireless carrier's (Verizon) admin screens and turned it off, then the iPhone would again get caller ID. That's rather labor-intensive, since it's per phone; plus we'd be giving up voice over LTE.

This was only a problem with our local telco; our long distance calls on a different carrier worked just fine.

The PRI change suggested above fixed it, but I only changed the calling settings, not the called settings. If I changed the called settings, that PRI would go into unregistered state, and wouldn't come out of it. I didn't really investigate it much; I just switched the called settings back to where they started, and all was well.

To be specific:

Calling party IE number type unknown = National

Calling Numbering Plan = ISDN

[lusandi · Accepted solution]

Try this:

On the On the outbound calls of your PRI:

Called party IE number type unknown* National
Called numering plan ISDN

On the PRI protocol Type Specific Information:

Check -- Display IE delivery
Check -- Redirecting Number IE Delivery - Outbound

Regards,

Luis Sandi

[muranskycotech]

Thanks, I gave this a try.

It had no impact for the Armstrong customers. I won't be able to test the AT&T numbers until tomorrow morning.

Interestingly, it's not affecting all Armstrong or all AT&T numbers. For example, I have 4 coworkers with AT&T Wireless. Two of them have Android phones, and two of them have iPhones. One of each receives the appropriate number, the others see Unknown. This is true even when the phones are sitting on my desk using.

[muranskycotech]

I'm pleased to report that I've solved the issue now.

Previously, I had been advised to change the "Called party IE number type unknown" and "Called Numbering Plan" to National and ISDN, respectively. I changed them, but it was unclear at the time that I also needed to change the "Calling party IE number type unknown" and "Calling Numbering Plan" as well (apparently important for use with Single Number Reach). I also enabled the options for "Display IE Delivery", and "Redirecting Number IE Deliver" for Inbound AND Outbound.