The line information database (LIDB) is a collection of commercial databases used in the United States and Canada by telephone companies to store and retrieve Calling Name Presentation (CNAM) data used for caller ID services. In Canada, it is common for the client to apply their own Caller ID information, and this is allowed (and common in PBXs), provided the regulations regarding spoofing and fraud are not violated. [1] The databases map telephone numbers to 15-character strings of caller names. Class 5 telephone switches, which provide end-office services in exchange areas, use the Signaling System 7 (SS7) signaling protocol to query the database. [2]
The data submitted to the Line Information Database is maintained by a customer's carrier, and most incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) like the Baby Bells, and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) provide access for customers. In addition, LIDB databases were available from Intelco, Neustar, TNS, Qwest, Sprint and Verisign in North America. [3] Some carriers do not provide a database, and CNAM lookups are provided using alternate methods, aggregated data from other sources, such as social media.
In the US, caller ID name information is not transmitted from the originating office to the destination office. It is the terminating carrier that is responsible for providing the caller ID information to its customers. The carrier performs a database lookup using the caller's telephone number to obtain the name information for the caller ID service. If the data is with another carrier, then the terminating carrier must perform a lookup and pay a small dip fee to the carrier hosting the information. [4] Wholesale rates for the fee are on the order of $200 to $600 per 100,000 lookups. [4]
Per carrier policy, the name of a person or business may be automatically added to the Line Information Database and the customer must opt-out to remain anonymous. Other carriers exclude identity information by rule, and require the subscriber to opt-in. If the identity information is not available, then the maintainer of the database often returns geographic information, such as the city and state. In case of a failure, the maintainer of the database may also return "NOT AVAILABLE".
The CNAM databases are independent databases operated by LECs and other private companies. The called party's carrier has the responsibility to perform the CNAM lookup, and it is possible that lookups for the same telephone number from different locations return different name information. [3]
Enhanced 911 is a system used in North America to automatically provide the caller's location to 911 dispatchers. 911 is the universal emergency telephone number in the region. In the European Union, a similar system exists known as E112 and known as eCall when called by a vehicle.
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.
BellSouth, LLC was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S. Department of Justice forced the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984.
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.
In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory inquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity.
Local number portability (LNP) for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability (FMNP) for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability of a "customer of record" of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier (LEC) to reassign the number to another carrier, move it to another location, or change the type of service. In most cases, there are limitations to transferability with regards to geography, service area coverage, and technology. Location Portability and Service Portability are not consistently defined or deployed in the telecommunication industry.
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.
Alex was the name of an interactive videotex information service offered by Bell Canada in market research from 1988 to 1990 and thence to the general public until 1994.
Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long-distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It had been formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel until 2006, when it was spun off as an independent company. Embarq produced more than $6 billion in revenues annually, and had approximately 18,000 employees. It was based in Overland Park, Kansas.
Caller ID spoofing is a spoofing attack which causes the telephone network's Caller ID to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed.
A reverse telephone directory is a collection of telephone numbers and associated customer details. However, unlike a standard telephone directory, where the user uses customer's details in order to retrieve the telephone number of that person or business, a reverse telephone directory allows users to search by a telephone service number in order to retrieve the customer details for that service.
Voice phishing, or vishing, is the use of telephony to conduct phishing attacks.
Telephone companies in different countries use a variety of international telecoms routes to send traffic to each other. These can be legal routes or other arrangements the industry calls grey routes, special carrier arrangements, settlement by-pass and other euphemisms.
A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot. Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public service or emergency announcements. Multiple businesses and telemarketing companies use auto-dialing software to deliver prerecorded messages to millions of users. Some robocalls use personalized audio messages to simulate an actual personal phone call. The service is also viewed as prone to association with scams.
Telemarketing fraud is fraudulent selling conducted over the telephone. The term is also used for telephone fraud not involving selling.
City ID is Cequint's first-generation caller mobile identification service. City ID displays the city and state or country associated with the caller's telephone number. In partnership with mobile network operators, the City ID service is available on many devices from Alltel, AT&T, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon Wireless.
A choke exchange is a telephone exchange designed to handle many simultaneous call attempts to telephone numbers of that exchange. Choke exchanges are typically used to service telephone numbers of talk radio caller and contest lines of radio stations and event ticket vendors.
Usenet, USENET, or "in full", User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980. Users read and post messages to one or more topic categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to the Internet forums that have become widely used. Discussions are threaded, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.
Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) or Caller Name Delivery (CNAM) is used in US-based telephone networks to provide name identification of the calling party. The CNAM information is most often displayed in Caller ID. The information could be the person's name or a company name. The caller's name can also be blocked and display “restricted”, or if technical failures occur “not available”.
STIR/SHAKEN, or SHAKEN/STIR, is a suite of protocols and procedures intended to combat caller ID spoofing on public telephone networks. Caller ID spoofing is used by robocallers to mask their identity or to make it appear the call is from a legitimate source, often a nearby phone number with the same area code and exchange, or from well-known agencies like the Internal Revenue Service or Ontario Provincial Police. This sort of spoofing is common for calls originating from voice-over-IP (VoIP) systems, which can be located anywhere in the world.