This comparative analysis of Swedish, American and Dutch telephone call openings confirms that self-identification practices, i.e. either explicit self-identification or other-recognition through voice sample, are culturally variable. In the US both answerers and callers prefer other-recognition over self-identification. In the Netherlands this preference is reversed. The Swedish preference lies somewhere between these extremes: answerers overwhelmingly self-identify by name over the telephone, but they also avail themselves of the same resources found in American materials to achieve other-recognition.