City ID

City ID logo

City ID is a caller information software product created by Cequint Incorporated. City ID displays the North American city and state (primarily USA and Canada) of a calling phone number based upon the phone number's area code and exchange.
As of March 2011, Cequint has integrated City ID with over 30 handsets spanning five cellular phone Operating System platforms. These platforms include Blackberry, JME, BREW, BREWMP, Android, and Windows Mobile. Cequint has worked and continues to work with all major United States cellular carrier companies including Verizon Wireless, AT&T,^[1] Alltel, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile.

Caller information operation

The City and State information is determined by referencing an area code and exchange (NPA-NXX) of a phone number from a database stored locally on the handset. This database may be updated periodically over a communications channel using standard client-server application layer methods. The database lists the locations where blocks of phone numbers with a given area code and exchange prefix were initially registered.

The City ID application returns the City and State results to the cellular phone's Operating System which displays this information on call screens. The particular position and font of the City and State text is determined by the cellular phone software team. Cequint assists these teams in integrating the City and State lookup and subscription management.

Caller information limitation

The limitation of this caller information method is the City and State information is only a lookup of the place wherein the phone number was registered. For land-line phones this information is a reliable method for determining the phone's originating calling office or switch (the exchange). However, the land-line phone location may have a variable distance from the calling office. For mobile phones this information is much less useful because mobile phones often operate outside of their originally registered area code and exchange area.

Android Details

City ID is pre-installed on Android phones from Verizon Wireless.^[2] The software has a 15-day free trial and then a subscription fee is required to continue the service. The software is pre-installed and users cannot remove or disable it unless they have root privileges, e.g. "rooted" their phone.

Android removal

CityID announces itself during calls or text messages via a popup advertisement that gives the user an option to either "download now" or "remind me later". The program only displays methods for extension and does not have an Opt Out option. For the Android operating system, users can force stop it from the Application Manager in the Settings menu. Other operating systems may have some control through the Media Center.

According to Cequint:

The way to disable City ID is to select “No” at the end of the free trial, which ends 15 days after you receive the initial free trial notification. If you select “Remind Me Later,” or press the Back or End key (or a similar action) the trial expired message will appear after each incoming call (up to 10 times), so please be sure to select “No” upon the first expiration message to disable City ID.^[3]

BREW Details

City ID is pre-installed on many BREW (and the successor OS, BREWMP) phones from several carriers. BREW and BREWMP phones usually do not have obvious branding like Android and Blackberry phones. Cheaper feature phones in North America are most often BREW-based mobile phones.

BREW removal

The Media Center should allow removal of the pre-installed City ID application.

See also

• Mobile Caller ID
• NANPA
• Rooting (Android OS)

References

External links

• Cequint home page
• Alltel Wireless first carrier to introduce enhanced caller ID feature
• Verizon Wireless Introduces City ID, Providing Customers With City And State Information For Incoming Calls
• AT&T City ID feature explanation