Branded caller ID shows your business name, your logo and the reason for the call on the screen of the person you are calling, instead of a bare ten-digit number. The brand stays in their call history too, so a missed call still says who it was and why.
It is not a sticker anyone can put on a call. Your organization has to be vetted before carriers will show it, and the brand travels inside the same signed caller ID data carriers already use against robocalls. That is the difference from the caller name you see on most calls today, and it is why it is worth doing properly.
What branded caller ID shows
- Your business name, up to 35 characters, compared with the 15 characters of a traditional caller name.
- Your logo.
- A call reason, such as “Appointment Reminder” or “Responding to Your Inquiry”.
How much of that appears depends on the phone. Infobip, one of the providers in the ecosystem, notes that Android devices typically show all three, while iPhones vary with version and settings. The image above shows the same call on three different screens.
How it works: Branded Calling ID and STIR/SHAKEN
The standard behind it is Branded Calling ID (BCID), an industry program from CTIA, the wireless industry association. It builds on STIR/SHAKEN, the framework US carriers use to sign and verify caller ID:
- Vetting. An authorized vetting agent confirms that your business is who it says it is, that it has the right to use the phone numbers, and that it has the right to the display name, logo and call reasons it submitted.
- Signing. When you place a call, the signed STIR/SHAKEN token for that call also carries your vetted name, a link to your logo and the call reason.
- Display. The carrier delivering the call verifies the signature and, when the token carries vetted brand information, passes it to the handset.
Because the brand rides on the call’s own authentication, it cannot simply be copied onto a spoofed call. If you want the background on signing and attestation, our post on business calls marked as spam covers it.
Which networks and phones show it
The brand displays on calls to mobile phones on carriers that take part in the program:
- T-Mobile announced its work with CTIA on branded calls in January 2022.
- Verizon signed with CTIA in September 2025 to bring Branded Calling ID to its wireless network.
- AT&T does not display it. We have not seen an announcement that it will, and in our own traffic AT&T accounts for roughly a quarter of calls to mobile numbers, with the participating carriers covering about three quarters.
Calls to landlines and to carriers that do not participate complete normally. They just show whatever caller ID they would have shown anyway. Within a participating network, what appears still depends on the handset.
Branded caller ID vs CNAM
CNAM (caller name) is the name that shows on most calls today. It works very differently:
| CNAM | Branded | |
|---|---|---|
| What shows | Text name only | Name, logo and call reason |
| Length | 15 characters | Up to 35 characters |
| Where it comes from | Looked up by the receiving carrier in a caller name database | Carried in the signed caller ID of each call |
| Checked by anyone? | No vetting; records can be years out of date | Vetted by an authorized agent before it is used |
Stale CNAM records are a common complaint: numbers get reassigned and the databases lag, sometimes by years. A business that shows up under the wrong name has a CNAM problem; a business that shows up as “Spam Likely” has a reputation problem. With branded calling, the name the recipient sees has been checked before it is ever shown. For the related “[V]” mark on incoming calls, see what the [V] on your caller ID means.
What vetting needs from you
Vetting is about the organization, so it asks for the details a registry or tax record would confirm. Our registration form collects them in one go:
- Legal business name and any “doing business as” name, organization type and legal type
- Federal tax ID (EIN), website domain, industry and number of employees
- Optional identifiers that help vetting, such as a Dun & Bradstreet number, corporate registration number and jurisdiction of incorporation
- An organization contact the vetting provider can reach, and a billing contact
Have your name, logo and the call reasons you want to use ready as well. Vetting checks your right to each of them, so use the name your customers know and a logo you own.
Who gets the most from it
It earns its keep where a missed call costs money or causes harm:
- Healthcare: appointment reminders, test results, prescription calls.
- Financial services: fraud alerts and account security calls customers need to answer.
- Home services and field technicians: confirming the appointment before the truck rolls.
- Auto repair: getting approval for extra work while the car is still on the lift.
- Schools: calls a parent should never let go to voicemail.
What it costs
There are two parts: a flat monthly fee that covers your participation and keeps your verified brand on file, and a per-call fee of 10 to 14 cents, lower at higher volumes. You pay the per-call fee only when the brand is actually displayed. A call to AT&T, to a landline or to any other carrier that does not show it costs nothing extra.
How Telnamix handles registration
Carriers require the organization to be vetted before they show its brand, so registration starts with the details above. You fill in the form once. Our provisioning team reviews every submission before it goes to vetting, contacts you if anything needs correcting, and runs the registration from there. Once it is live, your outbound calls carry the brand automatically, with no change to how your staff place calls.
It works best alongside good calling habits, so if your numbers are already being labeled, read why business calls get marked as spam as well. We offer it on the hosted phone systems and 3CX systems we run, and questions about whether it fits your call volume are welcome: contact us.