i3Forum’s latest paper brings much needed clarity to cloud number services by mapping real-world use cases, highlighting carrier roles, and introducing the concept of “Know the Use Case” (KUC). The work lays the foundation for a global Cloud Number Factbook to protect legitimate communications and guide regulatory alignment.
As the global telecommunications industry continues its rapid transformation driven by digitalization and increasingly sophisticated B2C and C2B interactions, i3Forum’s Cloud Numbers and Inbound Calling Workgroup has released a service use cases report offering much-needed clarity on the growing Cloud Number ecosystem.
Cloud Number services have emerged as a cornerstone of modern, value-added voice communications. These services enable businesses to deliver seamless, automated customer experiences via digital portals, meeting increasing global demand for connectivity, flexibility, and regulatory compliance. However, the surge in adoption has also brought challenges: fragmented regulations, inconsistent service implementations, and traffic patterns that often raise red flags for international carriers.
Amid these complexities, the i3Forum Workgroup—collaborating closely with One Consortium—has developed a comprehensive reference document aimed at aligning industry stakeholders on a shared understanding of Cloud Number services.
“This deliverable is more than a report—it serves as a strategic foundation for advancing the discussion on how to manage and legitimize emerging use cases that deliver real value to end customers relying on cloud numbers. In an increasingly digitized and interconnected world, these solutions are essential to meeting evolving customer expectations while navigating complex regulatory landscapes.” said Eva Jimenez, Co-Chair of the i3Forum Cloud Numbers and Inbound Calling Workgroup. “By mapping real-world use cases, commercial models, and service-technical implementations, we help the industry understand and distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate global service implementations.”
The document outlines multiple service scenarios, highlighting how carriers provide not only number sales and communication transport but also compliance assurance and fraud prevention mechanisms. Key sections explore:
- Commercial and technical descriptions of cloud number services
- Roles of international voice carriers
- Regulatory landscapes and compliance challenges
- Common fraud schemes and mitigation strategies
- Practical recommendations to protect legitimate services from disruption
A critical concern explored in the report is the fragmented regulatory framework governing DID and their Break-in/Break-out calls, which varies significantly per country. This disparity forces carriers to adapt their strategies on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. To facilitate regulatory approval for service deployment and call termination, it is essential to clearly articulate legitimate use cases—especially those involving valid Caller Line Identification (CLI) scenarios associated with cloud numbers.
While often associated with fraud, this traffic can also stem from legitimate Cloud Number services. Without global coordination, regulatory interventions risk blocking lawful communications while failing to eliminate harmful and malicious scam and spam.
The i3Forum’s work brings much-needed nuance to this issue, offering insight that enables policymakers and telecom operators to collaborate in separating harmful traffic from legitimate business communications.
As voice services shift from traditional models to “Everything-as-a-Service” (XaaS) frameworks, this initiative ensures that one of telecom’s most vital resources—numbers—continues to support innovation, customer satisfaction, and security.
“The communications world has changed dramatically,” added Nishant Arya, Co-Chair of the i3Forum Cloud Numbers and Inbound Calling Workgroup and Director i3Forum. “Our industry must evolve to manage not just the technology, but also the regulatory and trust frameworks that underpin it. Today, beyond just the KYC, ‘Know the Use Case’ (“KUC”) or how the numbers are being used within applications is becoming extremely important. XaaS has elevated the use of numbers as key components in the application and enterprise services value chain. This necessitates industry to adopt consistent process & policy frameworks and globally aligned regulatory oversights to enable compliant use of the cloud numbers by various digital services. This paper is the first part of contribution by the workgroup with the eventual aspiration of facilitating creation of the Cloud Number Factbook, which can be used by the industry as the most authentically referenceable knowledge base on cloud numbers.”
The full report is available through the i3Forum website and is being shared with global regulators (through One Consortium and GIRAF) as a baseline for future cooperation and solution discussions.