Making sure your caller ID reaches the carrier

VICIdial sets the caller ID on the channel before it dials, and your carrier reads it off the outbound INVITE. The number you set on the campaign is the one that should arrive — but it can get stripped or overwritten along the way, so it pays to know where it can break.

Where caller ID is set

In VICIdial the outbound caller ID usually comes from the campaign's Outbound Caller ID field, or from a per-list or per-lead override if you have one set. By call time it is sitting in the Channel as CALLERID(num), which is the value the Dialplan passes to the Dial command. Your carrier sees that value as the From and PAI on the outbound SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) INVITE.

Two related fields ride along: the ANI, which is the billing number your carrier records, and the CNAM (caller ID name)-eligible number, which is what the called party's carrier may look up for a name. For most setups these are the same number you set as caller ID.

flowchart LR
  A[Campaign Outbound Caller ID] --> B[Lead/List override?]
  B --> C[CALLERID num on channel]
  C --> D[Dialplan Dial command]
  D --> E[SIP INVITE From/PAI]
  E --> F[Carrier]
  F --> G[Called party display]

Why it gets stripped or overwritten

The carrier, not VICIdial, has the final say on what the called party sees. A few common reasons your number does not survive:

• The carrier only allows caller IDs you have registered with them, and overwrites anything else with a default number.
• The number is not in E.164 format the carrier expects, so it gets rejected or rewritten.
• A DID (direct inward dialing) override on the list or lead silently replaces the campaign value, and you forgot it was there.
• The trunk's account entry forces a fromuser or trustrpid setting that changes what is sent.

How to confirm it arrives

Do not trust the admin screen — trust what shows up on a real handset.

1. Set the campaign caller ID to a known number and place one test call to your own cell phone.
2. Check what actually displayed. If it does not match, the carrier or an override changed it.
3. On the Asterisk CLI, run a SIP trace on the outbound call and read the From and P-Asserted-Identity headers to see exactly what left your server.

If the headers leaving your box are correct but the display is wrong, the change is happening at the carrier, and that is a conversation to have with them — usually about registering the number to your account. The way your trunk authenticates affects this too, so it helps to understand registration versus IP authentication before you call support.

Common mistakes to rule out first

Before you blame the carrier, rule out the easy stuff on your own server:

• An empty or default Outbound Caller ID on the campaign, which sends nothing useful.
• A leftover override on a specific list or lead that you set up months ago and forgot.
• A caller ID with a leading 1 or extra digits the carrier does not accept, so it falls back to a default number.

Fixing these on your side is fast. Getting a carrier to stop overwriting a registered number can take a support ticket and a day or two, so it is worth confirming your own config is clean before you open one.

Caller ID handling is one slice of getting a carrier wired up correctly. The full sequence lives in the carrier integration guide. A VICIfast server gives you a fixed public IP your carrier can whitelist and a branded subdomain in under 40 seconds — see pricing to get one running.