CNAM (Calling Name) is a service in the MiCloud and Sky phone systems that adds text, such as the name of the caller's company, to the phone number that appears on phones that receive your calls. The text that is added to a phone number can include a maximum of 15 characters. The functionality is similar to Caller ID, which only displays the caller's phone number on phones that receive phone calls. CNAM, also referred to as Caller ID Name, enables companies to display both their organization's name or other text and their phone number (if desired) to customers receiving their calls.
CNAM service is not available for toll-free phone numbers. Note that a phone profile's Outbound Caller ID can be set to display a toll-free phone number. However, it is not recommended to use a toll-free number because some telecom carriers (and individual users) block inbound calls that display toll-free numbers as the Outbound Caller ID.
The primary benefit of CNAM is that it gives potential customers more confidence to answer phone calls when they see the calling company's name displayed next to a phone number they may not recognize. Companies that use CNAM service usually display their main line phone number, rather than individual user's phone numbers, along with their organization's name.
If you are an Authorized Contact for your organization, you can request a change to the CNAM of your main phone line by submitting a Support Case or contacting Support. Note that the average service level response for a CNAM request is 7 to 10 business days after the request is submitted. The MiCloud/Sky SLA (Service Level Agreement) to submit CNAM requests to our partner carriers is 2-3 business days.
Note that there are several technical reasons why CNAM service may not be effective on some of the phones that receive an organization's phone calls. Called parties must subscribe to Caller ID service from their phone company. The equipment at the location of the called party must accept (not block) Caller ID. Additionally, some phone companies use outdated, unauthorized databases to populate Caller ID rather than accessing live, authorized databases that contain current CNAM data.
