Set Default Contact when contacts share a number

Set up a contact for that number and remove it from the other contacts.

I've read that phone systems can use a white-list system to publish the actual calling phone #. So if someone dials another employee's cell phone, the system knows it's an internal # and will publish the real # and not the general #

Perhaps the solution to your problem is a simple one that can be handled by your phone systems IT.

Craig Greenslade wrote:

Surely there should be a way to mark a contact as the default prefered contact for a specific number?

No, there isn't. In the Contacts App in iOS (and in most systems) the number is an attribute of the Contact entity. What you are attempting is basically to treat it the other way around and the data isn't structured to do that.

I was having the same issue and found that if I add another character, like an "x," after the phone number, then that contact will not be displayed when incoming calls are received. Calls made to that contact will succeed (although this may be dependent on your network provider).

Now, this would be tricky in a corporate environment, because you'll get an "x" everywhere -- Outlook, AD, etc., and contacts shared with those outside the organisation would retain the "x," it is one possible workaround. Some other non-displayed character may also work, if you experiment (spaces, non-breaking spaces, DBCS spaces, control characters).