Clean CID Number and Alter CID Name on a DID

Carriers do not all deliver caller ID the same way. One sends you a clean 10-digit number, another prefixes a leading 1, another pads with extra junk. Two fields on the Modify DID screen let you normalize this before VICIdial routes the call: Clean CID Number and Alter CID Name. Both act on the DID (direct inward dialing) (Direct Inward Dialing number) the call arrived on.

Clean CID Number trims the digits

This field reshapes the inbound CID (caller ID) (caller ID, the number the calling party presents) using short rule codes. It defaults to empty, meaning no change.

• R keeps the right-most digits. R10 keeps the last 10 digits, so 1-727-555-3000 becomes 7275553000.
• L removes a specific leading digit. L1 strips a leading 1.
• T trims from the left to a fixed length. T3 on 12345 returns 123.

You can combine rules by separating them with a space. When more than one is present they run in the order R, then L, then T, regardless of how you typed them. So even if you write the rules out of sequence, the system applies them in that fixed order, which keeps the result predictable.

A worked example helps. Say a carrier hands you 011727555300012 with a country prefix and a trailing extension. R10 keeps the last ten digits, leaving you a clean North American number. If instead the carrier only ever adds a single leading 1, L1 alone does the job. Pick the smallest rule that fixes your carrier's quirk rather than stacking codes you do not need.

Alter CID Name rewrites the name

This option changes the caller ID name, the CNAM (caller ID name) (the text label some carriers attach to a number) as the call first enters the DID routing process. It is DISABLED by default. The behavior depends on which keyword you put in the field:

• ALLCALLS alters the name on every call through this DID.
• OTHSYS only touches calls coming from another VICIdial system that carry a special 20-character name beginning with V, Y, M, or DC.
• CIDNUM replaces the name with the caller ID number.
• CLEAN replaces the name with the literal word CLEANED.

Order of operations

flowchart TD
  A[Inbound call hits DID] --> B[Alter CID Name applied]
  B --> C[Clean CID Number rules run]
  C --> D[Rule order R then L then T]
  D --> E[Normalized caller ID]
  E --> F[DID Route handle method]
  F --> G[Lead match or new lead]

When would you reach for each keyword? CIDNUM is handy when carriers send useless or spoofed names and you would rather just see the number on the agent screen. CLEAN is a quick way to neutralize a noisy name without deciding what to replace it with. OTHSYS is the narrow one, meant only for calls handed between linked VICIdial systems. For most single-system setups, ALLCALLS plus a CIDNUM behavior is the common starting point.

Used together, these fields hand the rest of your routing a tidy, predictable number and name no matter how the carrier formatted them. For the full routing picture, see our VICIdial inbound call handling guide. When you are ready to route by caller ID rather than just clean it, our note on the in-group area code filter is a good next step.

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