Attaching your name to Caller ID ???

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richmond
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:18 pm

Attaching your name to Caller ID ???

Post by richmond »

When I make calls the caller ID only has the phone number and not my name. Is there a way to add your name so the caller knows who is calling? Thanks...
HolmanGT
MagicJack Sensei
Posts: 1127
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:13 am
Location: Saint George, UT

Post by HolmanGT »

I don't think it is normal for the Telco to send the Name with the number. The only way I know of is the receiving party must have you in their phone book and the phone links the name to the incoming number.

Could be wrong, won't be the first time.
- George -

HolmanGT - St. George, UT MJ-Area/Prefix 435-275
ooma-Area/Prefix 435-579
Baja Broadband, up-1mb dn-10mb, on days with a good tail wind.
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Stewart
Dan Should Pay Me
Posts: 663
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:58 pm

Post by Stewart »

Names are not sent with a call on the PSTN. When you call from one landline to another, the receiving carrier looks up the calling number in a database maintained by the originating carrier. The name is retrieved and sent to the called party. Some smaller carriers use a third party for these services. Cellular carriers, in general, do not provide such a database. When you call from a cell phone to a landline, the "name" might be displayed as "Sprint cell phone, San Francisco", or merely as "Cell phone CA". Cellular carriers usually don't provide names on incoming calls, either. A call from a landline to a cell phone will display only the number, unless that number is in the cell phone's local phone list, in which case the corresponding name will be shown.

Some VoIP providers maintain a name database that can be queried by the receiving carrier; these companies generally also will look up names on incoming calls. MJ does neither. AFAIK, there is no way, when calling a landline, to have your name displayed along with your MJ number, unless the callee has your name in a local directory on his phone. However, if you spoof a caller ID that is a landline or other VoIP service that provides your name, the callee will see your name (along with the spoofed number). This is unlikely to work when calling a cell phone, unless the callee has the spoofed number in his phone list.

When calling from one MJ number to another, the SIP display name is passed, so if you spoof that, the callee will see your name.

When calling from another service to MJ, no name will be shown, unless it's in the contacts list. If your MJ line is answered by e.g. Asterisk, you can query a third-party service to get the name. These services charge a fee for each lookup, typically $0.006 to $0.015, depending on volume. Your system could maintain a local cache to avoid looking up the same number more than once.
kumar
Dan Should Pay Me
Posts: 806
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:29 pm
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Post by kumar »

Long time no see Stewart, but yea if MJ is gonna be spending 2 pennys per call just for an extrac luxry we will be Magic Burnt (Damn doesnt work as good as Sun burnt). Hhaha
Peace
Kumar
Will not be on forum until after June 15th.
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