Calling location ID

[Hwr778]

Question that's been rattling around for a while now...

Placing an outgoing call to a non-contact number. Sometimes the network will figure out the city and province associated with the NPA-NXX, mostly just a province, but also sometimes nothing at all.

My query is, where is the info coming from, how/when is it updated, and why is it so inconsistently delivered?  Obviously there's the routing info in BILLING, as most of the time it shows up on the statement next month.

[FidoPamela]

Hey Hwr778

The billing is indeed based on NPA-NXX for outgoing calls. Both the area code and the next 3 digits determine the area of a number and how it will be billed. The data base is constantly updated with new numbers and area codes. 

As for incoming calls, this depends on where you are physically located. 

I'm not sure what inconsistencies you are referring to here. Can you give me more info on that? I'll be happy to look into this for you  

[Hwr778]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my post (or it was misread?).

The actual billing side of things (ie: statement) is not the issue -- the locations show up mostly accurately.

The concern I was attempting to raise is ON THE HANDSET WHEN MAKING A CALL ... the display of the outgoing number, and the associated location with that number.

Some numbers show the location as "CITY / PROVINCE" and others show just "PROVINCE"; if the backend billing system "dips the data" to pull out the city/province, then that information obviously exists ... but it is not provided TO THE HANDSET at the time of the call.

The discrepancy that I find is that there is no rhyme or reason as to which numbers display a city/province pair, and which only show a province -- many older exchanges show province only, some newer ones show city/province, almost all mobile-based exchanges only show province as do almost all new exchanges.

Does this clarify a bit for you?

Examples:

604-594-xxxx shows up as Surrey, BC (landline)

604-943-xxx shows as British Columbia (landline)

604-664-xxxx shows as Burnaby, BC (landline)

604-341-xxxx shows as British Columbia (mobile)

604-853-xxxx shows as Abbotsford, BC (landline)

604-856-xxxx shows as British Columbia (mobile)

[Hwr778]

Some more tinkering around on this topic, and I've tested a FreedomMobile handset and the Talkatone app (on my Fido handset) to compare results of number based location information displayed for outgoing calls, and BOTH seem to "hit" on more NPA-NXX locations than Fido.

I am unsure of the underlying network that the Talkatone app uses, but an educated guess would be Iristel.

[FidoNick]

Thanks for the additional info @Hwr778!

We're looking into this for you and we'll update you as soon as we have some more information to share. The same goes for your other post.

[Hwr778]

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@FidoNick wrote:

Thanks for the additional info @Hwr778!

We're looking into this for you and we'll update you as soon as we have some more information to share. The same goes for your other post.

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Thanks @FidoNick, I think this one will take longer, although the npa672 test number issue is resolved (within the last 5hrs, based on my testing)--So no need to update that one 😉

[FidoValeska]

Thank you for letting us know @Hwr778! 

We will let you know as soon as we have more information regarding this