Change Outbound CNAM for a Phone Number (CNAM Storage)
- Last updated on December 9, 2022 at 11:47 AM
SkySwitch offers both Inbound and Outbound CNAM options. This article contains information regarding Skyswitch’s CNAM Storage service. CNAM Storage involves registering a customer’s name and number within a national carrier database to aid in displaying the caller’s name on outbound calls.
When a call is received from a phone number, a lookup is done through the national carrier database to retrieve and display the associated CallerID.
It is important to note that displaying CallerID is the responsibility of the receiving phone company. For example, if you call a SkySwitch DID, it is the responsibility of SkySwitch to accurately display the correct record. Similarly, if you call a Verizon number, it would be Verizon's responsibility to display the correct information. It is a common practice among phone companies to cache CallerID information. This means you may have differing results calling different destinations. The only way to correct a record you believe is incorrect is to open a ticket with the company receiving the call.
For the reasons mentioned above, changing CNAM details for a phone number is unavailable for BYOT numbers, Off-Net numbers, or numbers in Port-In status.
If you want to check that a user's Outbound Caller ID is set to ensure that the Outbound CNAM will be pulsed out, please view our Change Outbound Caller ID for a User article for instructions.
Viewing a Phone Number's CNAM Detail
To view a Phone Number's CNAM detail, starting from your Partner Dashmanager menu, navigate to Telco → Phone Numbers → Manage Inventory.
Once you arrive, search for the phone number you want to view and then click on the label/tag icon found to the far right of the selected number.
Once the CNAM popup dialog is displayed, click on the “Outbound CNAM” tab.
Once selected, the current CNAM information is displayed in the “Current CNAM Details” section. Phone numbers that are not set with CNAM detail will typically display the number's city and state of origin, as seen above.
Updating a Number's CNAM Detail
After looking up a number within the Manage Inventory portal and viewing the Outbound CNAM information, you may update a Number's CNAM detail by selecting the 'Update CNAM' button.
Once the name field is displayed, enter the preferred CNAM detail (Max of 15 characters, including spaces).
If successful, you will see the message: "The request to update the new name has been submitted to the CNAM provider. Updates are expected to cascade to all CNAM publishers in 48 to 72 hours", as seen below.
Please note, a CNAM update will not take effect immediately.
Updating CNAM within this portal sends a request to a CNAM provider to cascade the information to CNAM databases accessed by carriers. The image below shows 2 out of the 3 listed publishers have the updated CNAM name.
CNAM Phone Number updates via a Ticket
Some phone numbers may not allow changes via direct API updates.
For numbers that cannot be changed via API updates, an RT ticket will be automatically created and sent to the Porting team. The ticket number will be visible in the popup dialog, as seen below. Please be sure to track the progress of the CNAM update via the ticket provided.
Once the CNAM update process has been completed, our Porting team will remove the ticket information (pictured above) from the Outbound CNAM screen.
Removing the CNAM Detail for a Number
Similar to updating a number's CNAM information, you may also opt to remove the CNAM detail for selected phone numbers.
To remove a number's CNAM detail from the Outbound CNAM tab, select the 'Remove CNAM Details' button. Once selected, a confirmation check will appear to ensure you fully intend to remove the CNAM details. If so, click the 'Remove CNAM Details' button, as seen in the image below.
Much like the process of updating CNAM information, removing the CNAM details does not take effect immediately.
After a CNAM detail removal request has been sent, you will see the message: ”The delete CNAM request has been sent to the provider. The CNAM is expected to be removed in all CNAM publishers in 48 to 72 hours.”, as seen below.
CNAM removal for numbers via a Ticket
Similar to the CNAM update process, some numbers may not have CNAM details removed via direct API updates.
For numbers that cannot be changed via API updates, an RT ticket will be automatically created and sent to the Porting team for processing. The ticket number will be visible in the popup dialog. Please track the progress of the CNAM removal via the ticket. The Porting team will remove the ticket once the CNAM update process is completed.
Viewing historical CNAM changes for Numbers
You may view historical CNAM changes in the change history of the number. To do this, navigate to Manage Inventory, search for the number, and click on the "clock" icon.
Once selected, you will see the DID History of the phone number. Changes for all modules will display by default; however, you may select the Module drop-down menu and filter for "route" and then set the date range you wish to view.
After updating the module type and date range, note that the "Type" and "Action" columns indicate the type of change made.
- If an entry shows "cnam outbound" for the Type column and "set" for the Action column, this would imply a CNAM update request.
- If an entry shows "cnam outbound" for the Type column and "remove" for the action column, this would imply a CNAM Detail removal request.