Adjacent Areas

It is typical for call centers that reach out to customers to use telephone numbers, or DIDs, with caller IDs that are from the same area as the target audience, as it usually makes the called parties more comfortable if a local number is calling them. This is referred to as Local Presence, where the number used for presenting Caller ID information is in the same area code (NPA) as the called party.

But sometimes there are no numbers available in the call center’s pool of DIDs that can provide Local Presence. For that case, a feature is now available that allows using an area code nearby in a similar way as Local Presence but using a geographical determination. This feature is called Adjacent Areas, where an adjacent area is considered one that geographically borders with the target one, in the context of area codes. For example, if area code 123 services a geographic area that borders with the area serviced by 234, then 123 is an Adjacent Area to 234 (and vice versa).

We define the use of Adjacent Areas in My CallerID. In that table we define any and all numbers that can be used for caller ID purposes, if a corresponding campaign has no default value defined, and the different switches indicating when and how to use them. The following picture shows an example with a partial view of My CallerID fields, including Local Presence and Adjacent Areas.

The handling of Local Presence and Adjacent Areas is done entirely in My CallerID on a record (phone) by record basis; every entry has a switch for Local Presence and a switch for Adjacent Areas, which are turned ON and OFF independently within and among records. What that means is that if a phone number (record in My CallerID) qualifies as caller ID for a particular call, the Adjacent Areas switch will be looked at when determining whether that number is the best match for caller ID for the call.

Although you should refer to My CallerID and Deter SPAM articles for details on how a best match is determined, the following table provides explanation of relevant fields in My CallerID.

Phone	Number that will be used to display as Caller ID
Local Presence	Switch that indicates whether this number is available to be used as Caller ID for numbers-to-be-called with the same area code (NPA)
Adjacent Areas	Indicates whether this number is available to be used as Caller ID for numbers-to-be-called that are in areas nearby. It is similar to State, but it uses a geographical determination; an adjacent area is considered one that geographically borders with it.
State	Indicates whether this number is available to be used as Caller ID for numbers-to-be-called that are in the same State. The determination of State is done internally by the system and is based on NPAs (area codes); one or more NPAs are part of a State. If this field is set to All States, then the number can be used as Caller ID for a number-to-be-called from any State