Quote Originally Posted by GreenLantern View Post
I'm getting some questions about OUTBOUND CALLER ID.

Is this available yet to reseller accounts?

And if so, can an 800 number be used for the outbound CID info?

Thanks in advance, I'll hang up and listen.
1) No, we do not offer outgoing caller ID even as part of our main offering. Many of our upstream carriers including our primary carrier do not support this.

It's not technilogically possible for us to just transmit a name. The underlying carrier partner that has the physical equipment in the area where the phone number is must put the name in a database. They are the only one that can do that. The vast majority of our carrier partners won't do this at all due to the administrative burden and the ones that do charge anywhere from $15-$40 to do it and then a recurring monthly fee to keep it there.

If our carrier partners start supporting it, it's something we're interested in offering.

2) Toll-free numbers cannot be used for Caller ID. Our costs for sending calls out the the phone number are extremely complex and vary depending on the to/from numbers, if in-state/out of state, the providers involved, etc. Costs for us to complete a US call will range from fractions of a center per minute to the majority of areas to well over 5 cents per minute to rural areas. It all averages out though which is how we're able to offer resellers a flat rate. When a toll-free number is used the call is typically billed at the highest possible rate since there's no data to rate the call on to determine the appropriate cost to bill.