Automatic number identification

Last updated

Automatic number identification (ANI) [1] [2] is a feature of a telecommunications network for automatically determining the origination telephone number on toll calls for billing purposes. Automatic number identification was originally created by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) for long distance service in the Bell System, [3] [4] eliminating the need for telephone operators to manually record calls.

Contents

Modern ANI has two components: information digits, which identify the class of service, [5] and the calling party billing telephone number.

The term is also used to describe the functions of two-way radio selective calling that identify the transmitting user.

ANI is distinct from newer caller ID services, such as call display, which are solely for informing a subscriber.

Toll-free telephone numbers

Modern toll-free telephone numbers, which generate itemized billing of all calls received instead of relying on the special fixed-rate trunks of the Bell System's original Inward WATS service, depend on ANI to track inbound calls to numbers in special area codes such as +1-800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833 with 822 reserved for future toll free use (United States and Canada), 1800 (Australia) or 0800 and 0808 (United Kingdom).

Privacy

ANI is conceptually and technically different from caller ID service. [1] A caller's telephone number and line type are captured by ANI service even if caller ID blocking is activated. The destination telephone company switching office can relay the originating telephone number to ANI delivery services subscribers. Toll-free subscribers and large companies normally have access to ANI, either instantly via installed equipment, or from a monthly billing statement. Residential subscribers can obtain access to ANI information through third party companies that charge for the service. [6] {{ ANI is generally not transmitted when a call is operator assisted; only the area code of the last switch to route the call is sent.[ citation needed ]

Automatic number announcement

ANI is used to provide automatic number announcement, a test facility of a central office for telephone installation technicians. The service, which is not advertised to the public, allows an installer to identify a line by dialing a telephone number. Such numbers are typically assigned in a a range reserved for testing purposes (such as 958-xxxx in much of North America).

DNIS

Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) is a related service feature available to private branch exchange subscribers. [7] [8] It transmits information about the destination number, which a service provider can use to have several toll-free numbers directed to the same call center and provide unique service. DNIS can also be used to identify other call routing information. For example, toll-free service can be configured to send a specific DNIS number that is assigned to callers from geographic regions based on city, area code, state, or country.

Similar services

Related Research Articles

An automatic number announcement circuit (ANAC) is a component of a central office of a telephone company that provides a service to installation and service technicians to determine the telephone number of a telephone line. The facility has a telephone number that may be called to listen to an automatic announcement that includes the caller's telephone number. The ANAC facility is useful primarily during the installation of landline telephones to quickly identify one of multiple wire pairs in a bundle or at a termination point.

Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunication service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra digits to be dialed as prefixes to the directory telephone number of the destination. International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD) extends the system beyond the geographic boundaries of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

Caller identification is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is being set up. The caller ID service may include the transmission of a name associated with the calling telephone number, in a service called Calling Name Presentation (CNAM). The service was first defined in 1993 in International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendation Q.731.3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Numbering Plan</span> Integrated telephone numbering plan of twenty North American countries

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the telephone country code 1. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate with the NANP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone call</span> Connection between two or more people over a telephone network

A telephone call or telephone conversation, also known as a phone call or voice call, is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party. Telephone calls started in the late 19th century. As technology has improved, a majority of telephone calls are made over a cellular network through mobile phones or over the internet with Voice over IP. Telephone calls are typically used for real-time conversation between two or more parties, especially when the parties cannot meet in person.

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.

A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reachable by a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbering plans are defined in each of the administrative regions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and in private telephone networks.

Phone fraud, or more generally communications fraud, is the use of telecommunications products or services with the intention of illegally acquiring money from, or failing to pay, a telecommunication company or its customers.

In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate than local calls. The term is not necessarily synonymous with placing calls to another telephone area code.

Direct inward dialing (DID), also called direct dial-in (DDI) in Europe and Oceania, is a telecommunication service offered by telephone companies to subscribers who operate private branch exchange (PBX) systems. The feature provides service for multiple telephone numbers over one or more analog or digital physical circuits to the PBX, and transmits the dialed telephone number to the PBX so that a PBX extension is directly accessible for an outside caller, possibly by-passing an auto-attendant.

Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) is a service offered by telecommunications companies to corporate clients which identifies the originally dialed telephone number of an inbound call. The client may use this information for call routing to internal destinations or activation of special call handling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in the Republic of Ireland</span>

Numbers on the Irish telephone numbering plan are regulated and assigned to operators by ComReg.

An intercept message is a telephone recording informing the caller that the call cannot be completed, for any of a number of reasons ranging from local congestion, to disconnection of the destination phone, number dial errors or network trouble along the route.

A feature group, in North American telephone industry jargon, is most commonly used to designate various standard means of access by callers to competitive long-distance services. They defined switching arrangements from local exchange carriers central offices to interexchange carriers. These arrangements were described in an official tariff of the National Exchange Carrier Association, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in New Zealand</span> New Zealand numbering plan

The New Zealand telephone numbering plan describes the allocation of telephone numbers in New Zealand and the Pitcairn Islands.

National conventions for writing telephone numbers vary by country. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) publishes a recommendation entitled Notation for national and international telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and Web addresses. Recommendation E.123 specifies the format of telephone numbers assigned to telephones and similar communication endpoints in national telephone numbering plans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone number</span> Sequence of digits assigned to a telephone subscription

A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices for data transmission via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or other public and private networks.

Toll-free telephone numbers in the North American Numbering Plan have the area code prefix 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888. Additionally, area codes 822, 880 through 887, and 889 are reserved for toll-free use in the future. 811 is excluded because it is a special dialing code in the group NXX for various other purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone exchange</span> Interconnects telephones for calls

A telephone exchange, also known as a telephone switch or central office, is a crucial component in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or large enterprise telecommunications systems. It facilitates the interconnection of telephone subscriber lines or digital system virtual circuits, enabling telephone calls between subscribers.

In conventional landline telephony, a non-dialable toll point or toll station was a lone station or line serving a rural subscriber many miles from the nearest central office. As it had no home telephone exchange and therefore no local calling area, no customer could dial its number; all connections to it had to be obtained manually by the long distance operator.

References

  1. 1 2 Anthony Ramirez (April 4, 1992). "Caller ID: Consumer's Friend or Foe?". The New York Times . Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  2. "The Pizza Version of Dialing '911'". The New York Times . September 9, 1991.
  3. US Patent 2,265,844: Calling Line Identification Circuit
  4. US Patent 2,300,829: Calling Line Identification System
  5. "ANI II Digits". North American Numbering Plan Administration. 2003. Archived from the original on June 18, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
  6. Fallon, Sean (February 17, 2009). "TrapCall Displays Blocked Numbers on Your Caller ID". Gizmodo. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  7. Encyclopedia of Information Technology. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors LTD. 2007. p. 142. ISBN   978-81-269-0752-6.
  8. Andrew. A Practical Guide to Call Center Technology. p315. Archived 2014-06-28 at the Wayback Machine