Overview
LIDB stands for the Line Information Database, and is the underlying architecture that all Caller ID is built on. Specifically, CNAM records are stored in the LIDB Database in the same way that records are stored in MySQL databases.
The LIDB is not a single database - it is a deeply interconnected set of databases that is maintained by almost every carrier in North America. When one carrier updates the LIDB, all other carriers are able to access that information to provide information to their subscribers in real time. Wikipedia has an awesome article about this that we recommend you check out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_information_database
Skyetel is proud to offer the most comprehensive LIDB update coverage available on the market today. This is because we store our CNAM information on the largest and most interconnected network in North America and don't just use a traditional CNAM company. This allows our CNAM information to be pushed far and wide, and made available in the most authoritative databases available period.
Put simply - when you store your CNAM information with Skyetel, we push your data directly into the LIDB rather than to third parties. This means your CNAM records are shared far and wide, and serve as authoritative records. It's awesome.
Why is it not free?
The LIDB is not a simple MySQL server sitting in a datacenter. It is a legacy database system that is shared between competitors. This makes it both expensive to maintain, but also requires cooperation between companies that aren't well known for cooperation. The cost that we pass to you for storing LIDB records is the result of this architecture.
"Spam Likely"
The main benefit to our LIDB Update system is it dramatically reduces cases where the callee sees "Spam Likely" on their phone when you call them. This is because the recipient carrier is able to identify both the Stir/Shaken token from the Skyetel call, and also the corresponding LIDB information. These two resources combined create trust to the recipient carrier, and will dramatically reduce the number of invalid "Spam Likely" warnings.
Additionally, robocall blocking apps like Hiya and NoMoRobo all use data in the LIDB to validate if the Caller ID is a real number. By storing this information in the LIDB, these apps will give Skyetel DIDs a much higher trust rating, and will result in a higher pickup rate.
Updates
Updating the LIDB and storing your records requires a lot of cooperation between competitors. For example, these are the companies that access data pushed to LIDB by Skyetel:
- AT&T
- Somos
- Verizon
- Centurylink
- TDS
- Telus
- Syniverse
- Bell Canada
- Neustar (who most VoIP providers buy data from)
Because of this updating the LIDB has really strange update schedule, and is the reason why we tell people that LIDB updates usually take 30 days (but can sometimes take a little longer).
Here is the official update schedule:
|
Today’s date |
Effective date |
|
12/24 - 1/23 |
2/15 or a later date |
|
1/24 – 2/23 |
3/15 or a later date |
|
2/24 – 3/23 |
4/15 or a later date |
|
3/24 – 4/23 |
5/15 or a later date |
|
4/24 – 5/23 |
6/15 or a later date |
|
5/24 – 6/23 |
7/15 or a later date |
|
6/24 – 7/23 |
8/15 or a later date |
|
7/24 – 8/23 |
9/15 or a later date |
|
8/24 – 9/23 |
10/15 or a later date |
|
9/24 – 10/23 |
11/15 or a later date |
|
10/24 – 11/23 |
12/15 or a later date |
|
11/24 – 12/23 |
1/15 or a later date |
There are cases where updating the LIDB has failed, or did not propagate correctly. In these cases, we can perform a rebroadcast and push the data into the LIDB again. This restarts the ~30 day clock - which is annoying - but does usually resolve issues related to CNAM not being displayed.