Outbound Caller-ID Name (CNAM) Support

If other callers are seeing your caller-ID name (CNAM) displaying “Unknown, Null Null, Ooma inc, or someone else’s name”, please read the information below on possible causes and solutions.

Note: This information only applies to Ooma-hosted phone numbers.

1. Table of Contents

How CNAM works

When you place a call to someone, your caller-ID information will be transmitted with your call to the receiving party. If the person you are calling has caller-ID service, they will see your caller-ID name and number.

Generally, the caller-ID number is almost never wrong because the caller-ID number is almost always sent with the call. However, to display the CNAM to the receiving party, the receiving telephone carrier must first look up your CNAM in a database using your phone number.

Why your caller-ID name may not be displaying properly

For most phone carriers, there’s a cost associated with either querying a 3rd party CNAM database or keeping their own CNAM database up to date. Some telephone carriers have almost immediate access to the most up to date CNAM information, while others may not have access to this information for several months or longer.

Matters are further complicated with carriers having more than 20 different CNAM databases that do not all have the same data. Depending on the location and terminating carrier, certain people you call may correctly see your CNAM while others may not.

Provisioning outbound Caller-ID Name

The Ooma support team provisions the CNAM for every Ooma-hosted number based on the first and last name on your account. We provision your caller-ID name through several carrier and caller-ID providers. The provisioning process usually completes within 5 business days after you have activated your Ooma phone number or have chosen a virtual number (available with Ooma Premier). After this time, please allow at least 2 weeks for the CNAM information to propagate through various CNAM databases.

If you decide to port your phone number, Ooma will re-provision your caller-ID name. The provisioning process can not start until the porting process completes, which usually takes 3-4 weeks.

Customizing your Caller-ID Name

If you wish to change your caller-ID name, we can customize and provision your caller-ID name for a one-time charge of $19.99. Caller-ID names must include your business name or part of your first and last name. Please submit your request through Ooma support.