The purpose of this CXTech Week 40 2022 newsletter is to highlight, with commentary, some of the news stories in CXTech this week. What is CXTech? The C stands for Connectivity, Communications, Collaboration, Conversation, Customer; X for Experience because that’s what matters; and Tech because the focus is enablers.
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Covered this week:
- Register Now! Only 5 Weeks to TADSummit 2022 8/9 Nov Aveiro Portugal
- TADHack News: Jambonz and Radisys Developer Resources are LIVE! It’s time to Hack.
- TADHack News: Additional $1k Remote Entry Prize + Remote Entry Procedure
- SoftBank to dissolve stake in Sinch
- Voice phishing scams are the target of new bank and phone rules
- Google’s Stadia, The Issue of Trust
- TADHack Memories, 7 years ago today – TADHack Chicago
- Network X 18-20 October, Amsterdam
- People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff
Register Now! Only 5 Weeks to TADSummit 2022 8/9 Nov Aveiro Portugal
The $2T telecoms industry is realizing it’s programmable. This is creating billion dollar opportunities. RingCentral, GoContact, and Broadvoice deliver services to enterprises once dominated by telcos. AND they also deliver those services in partnership telcos. Some telcos lament the loss of enterprise telecom revenues. BUT Radisys Corporation, STROLID, Inc – Strong Process. Solid Results., stacuity, AWA Network GmbH, and Automat Berlin GmbH show there’s massive new value to be created. It’s a $2T industry where faster pipes do not equal new revenues, rather programmable telecoms / communications do!
TADHack News: Jambonz and Radisys Developer Resources are LIVE! It’s time to Hack.
You can start hacking! The Jambonz and Radisys developer resources for TADHack are live.
TADHack News: Additional $1k Remote Entry Prize + Remote Entry Procedure
With so many remote entries this year for TADHack, and to help the TADHack Sri Lanka teams that did not make the final 15. We’ve added a $1k remote entry prize.
Remote entries can win global prizes from the global sponsors, Radisys, STROLID, and Jambonz ($1k each). The $5k prize Radisys has added to the prize pot. And the $1k inclusion and accessibility prize. Everyone taking part in any location also has a chance to win these prizes, in addition to all the location prizes.
And now we’ve added a $1k remote entry prize, to recognize all those TADHackers hacking from home!
For TADHack Sri Lanka, if your hack does not make the final 15. No problem, you can still submit remotely for a chance to win some of that prize money, as long as its built on the global sponsors. If there is no location close by, no problem, just submit remotely.
SoftBank to dissolve stake in Sinch
Softbank will sell its 5% stake to Sinch’s chief executive, Johan Hedberg and its largest shareholder, Neqst D2. Investment company Neqst D2 will hold about 18.6% of Sinch’s outstanding stake at the completion of the sale.
Softbank in my opinion was conned. Hedberg and Neqst D2 will make out handsomely as Sinch is migrating toward Twilio’s model and they are the largest global aggregator in a commoditized business where scale is key to margin. The stock price will rise significantly from such lows in the coming 2 years.
Essentially Softbank discovered Sinch is not Twilio, a SaaS company, rather its an SMS aggregator. Sinch stock has fallen 93% from a peak in September 2021. I’ve been pointing out Sinch is not Twilio for years, check out this article on a simple programmable communication model. Perhaps there are benefits in reading this newsletter to avoid dodgy investments?
Voice phishing scams are the target of new bank and phone rules
In the Philippines, 39 people were recently arrested for running phishing scams and taking 1.8 billion won ($1.3M USD) from 378 Korean victims. The head of the organization was arrested in China with the help of Interpol and the Chinese police.
According to the Korean government, in the first eight months of 2022, a total of 16,431 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in voice phishing scams. Of those, 10,151 were low-level operators carrying out simple tasks, such as delivering cash from victims. Some 2,967 were charged for lending their bank accounts.
A total of 96,000 phone numbers were used in the scams, as well as 4,000 apps and 3,800 Kakao messenger accounts.
So the government and banks are implementing a number of rules. For the banks, cash deposits at ATMs without a card or a passbook, using only the account number and pin, will be limited to 500,000 won ($347) a day and withdrawals will be capped at 3 million won a day. Transfers will not be possible for three days for accounts opened online or with an app, unless the transfer is initiated directly through the app of the financial institutions.
A Korean citizen can currently be assigned up to four phone numbers by a single carrier.When including mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), a single person can own as many as 150 different numbers.
People who have allowed their names to be used for the registration of phones by others will be unable to register numbers. The government said it will take more aggressive action against shops that register numbers for people without properly checking the identity of the person. Telecommunication operators and manufacturers will be obligated to notify users if a call or a message is from abroad, as many of the phishing scams have originated overseas.
Yet there are solutions that can estimate if fraud is likely, as we’ll hear from Telesign and Prove at TADSummit: agenda is here and logistics are here. Telecoms in now programmable, there is so much intelligence that can be wrapped around a call, our industry should be playing a much more active role.
Google’s Stadia, The Issue of Trust
Last week I was pointing out how Optus was poorly managing the communications of its security incident in CXTech Week 39 2022. And this week its Google with Stadia. The article is brutal, this impacts developer trust across all Google’s services.
I’ve seen the conversations inside big corporations, “It’s only a few developers. Our PR and social media teams will handle it. We’re a listed company.”
Those ‘few developers’ are now some of the most enraged influencers you’ve ever seen. The community will not forget quickly, but in time a new generation of developers rise. I find myself often reciting history in meetings where assumptions are made, and though the internet forgets surprisingly quickly my mind and this weblog do not.
TADHack Memories, 7 years ago today – TADHack Chicago
Network X 18-20 October, Amsterdam
Network X is taking place on the 18-20 October in Amsterdam, bringing together the telco industry. This is the new home of the long-running 5G World and Broadband World Forum, and the newly launched Telco Cloud. These three events provide a universal view of the state of telco in 2022.
For anyone involved in TADHack, particularly those attending TADHack Amsterdam, it’s an excellent opportunity to meet the whole of the telecom industry in one event. Here’s the Free Expo Pass for Network X.
On Wednesday October 19th at Network X there’s a TADHack Takeover at the Tech Discovery Session from 15:25 to 16:30. Some of the TADHack winners will present their hacks at this event. It’s an amazing opportunity to pitch your winning ideas to, and meet, telecom executives from around the world. Presenters at the TADHack Takeover will receive an All-Access Pass for the full Network X experience.
Even if you’re not presenting, it’s well-worth supporting your fellow TADHackers at Network X. Once you’ve registered for the Free Expo Pass there’s a networking app so you can arrange meetings, here’s the list of exhibitors at the Expo, and I’ll help out with connecting people while I’m at Network X.
To all my telecom friends, contact me if you’d like to meet some of the TADHackers, the sponsors of TADHack, or even catch up with me.
People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff
Tania Guadalupe is now Software Engineer at Mercado Libre. At TADHack Global 2022 Tania and her team won both the Location and Avaya Global prizes at TADHack Colombia with Go Text Connection.
Jackson Philips is now Marketing Data Specialist at Alston & Bird
Scott Kolman is now Head of Marketing at Cresta
Kevin Brown is now Enterprise Architect – Mobile at Vodafone Oman
Laura Marriott has joined the AWS Telco Edge team to help drive the adoption of Edge use cases.
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