Wholesale glossary
Calling Line Identity (CLI) is the calling number presented on a call. Wholesale lives and dies by CLI honesty: CLI routes, with true number presentation, and non-CLI routes, with presentation suppressed, are different products at different prices, and selling one labelled as the other is fraud, not a margin decision.
Why it matters
CLI integrity underpins trust in the whole chain: subscriber trust in the numbers they see, enterprise trust in branded calling, and operator trust in the rates they settle. The three A-number frauds, refiling, spoofing and masking, are all attacks on it.
What practitioners watch
Demand honest CLI/non-CLI route labelling from partners, audit the routes you buy with test traffic, and watch CLI consistency per corridor for drift.
Related: Voice Wholesale · CLI Refiling Observatory · STIR/SHAKEN