Incoming ANI/Caller ID Setup (and Meridian Mail)

[nogden]

Hello everyone,

We have an Option 11 25.40b. We are looking to have basic Caller ID service on our incoming lines. Our incoming lines are ground-start analog trunks. For testing purposes, I've ordered caller ID on one of our incoming lines. What will we need to do (as far as equipment and programming) to be able to have caller ID on incoming calls? I thought for sure that this would have already been beat to death in the past, but I couldn't find any threads about incoming caller ID on ground start trunks.

Here is the first issue that I noticed. The line that I ordered Caller ID on is answered by our automated attendant, provided by Meridian Mail 13. Our automated attendant answers the call after the first ring, not giving the PBX time to pick up the ANI from the trunk. How do I set our automated attendant to answer after the second ring instead of the first ring?

 

[GHTROUT]

Sadly, Caller ID will not pass through a Universal Trunk Card. You will need to go PRI.

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[nogden]

Thanks Gene, I was afraid of that. Also, last I checked, PRI wasn't available in our area from our telco (a CLEC).

We are interested in Caller ID mainly in case we get harassing or annoying calls (though I am aware that caller ID can be faked). Let's say that I set up a third-party solution to record the ANI on incoming calls. I have seen caller ID loggers that will do this, and I don't think they are too expensive. Is there still a way to set Meridian Mail to answer on the second ring, giving time for my caller ID logger to capture the data?

 

[telebub]

No. Your CLID loggers will have to sit ahead of the system. The only way to get PRI into the system and into Meridian Mail is with PRI.

 

[nogden]

Right, I realize that any logger or standalone box would have to sit ahead of the system, and that is fine. However, since our automated attendant answers incoming calls immediately after the first ring, the telco can't transmit the caller id data before the call is answered since the data is transmitted between the first and second rings. If the automated attendant would wait until the second ring, standalone equipment ahead of the system would have time to receive caller ID data.