The purpose of this CXTech Week 44 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:

• First release of the vCon IETF Internet-Draft
• Oct RTCSec newsletter: Celebrations, presentations and new VoIP security tools
• TADHack Pictures, Videos, and Summary
• Twilio will close Zipwhip: first sue, then buy, then close down
• Mark Hay did a post on Linkedin about the evolution of A2P SMS
• TADSummit is Next Week, 8/9 Nov in Aveiro Portugal and Online
• Ways to think about a metaverse
• eSIM 5 years later
• Opinion Versus Experience in A Linkedin Post on Video Compression
• Webex by Cisco Claims
• Route Mobile vs Tanla Platforms
• People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

First release of the vCon IETF Internet-Draft

A vCon is the container for data and information relating to a real- time, human conversation. It is analogous to a [vCard] which enables the definition, interchange and storage of an individual’s various points of contact.

The data contained in a vCon may be derived from any multimedia session, traditional phone call, video conference, SMS or MMS message exchange, webchat or email thread. The data in the container relating to the conversation may include Call Detail Records (CDR), call metadata, participant identity information (e.g. STIR PASSporT), the actual conversational data exchanged (e.g. audio, video, text), realtime or post conversational analysis and attachments of files exchanged during the conversation.

A standardized conversation container enables many applications, establishes a common method of storage and interchange, and supports identity, privacy and security efforts (see [vCon-white-paper])

Learn more at:
* IETF discussion mailing list
* Open Source
* vCon White Paper

IETF 115 in London Nov. 5-11:
* Hackathon Saturday and Sunday
* HotRFC: 18:00 Sunday
* ART dispatch Work Group meeting Mon 9:30
* vCon Bar BoF: Thurs. 15:30-16:30 Richmond 6

Oct RTCSec newsletter: Celebrations, presentations and new VoIP security tools

In this edition, Sandro covers:

• This very newsletter is one year old!
• We’re looking for freelance pentesters to join us
• This time, 12 years ago in VoIP security incidents (Sality botnet scanning)
• Upcoming and past presentations of interest at TADSummit, CTI-Summit, Blackhat & ClueCon
• WebRTC security news: the “most secure VoIP” award and censorship busting
• New VoIP security tools and workshop by Jose Luis Verdeguer (Pepelux)
• And various security advisories, and other reports of concern

TADHack Pictures, Videos, and Summary

You can see the summary, pictures, and videos from TADHack Global 2022 on the website https://tadhack.com/2022/

We had an audio issue with the TADHack Colombia recordings, some of the teams re-recorded their pitches, thank you.

• IOTOC, a prototype in which, through Hardware, simulates a home automation system, where each LED represents an alert in a system of actuators, in order to have control over the different situations and objects in the home, such as the flow of water or lights. , the Hardware is linked to a database which is controlled through a web page assisted by an IVR implementing Radisys technology. The goal is to help people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) cope with daily life in such a way that they have control of their anxiety. Adrian Alejandro Otaya Mora, Diego Alexander Pantoja Chavez, Jeferson Arley Burbano Ortega, Juliette Andrea Oime Montenegro, William Burbano Ortega
• Paws at home, Locate lost pets with geo-location and alerts in real time via notifications and calls by Andres Felipe Gonzalez, Maria Juliana Marin, Julian Felipe Gutierrez
• Xcode by Luis Muñoz, Claudia Mora.
• Arttech, an online store for the redirect negotiation of handicrafts between the producer and the end customer. Kevin Andres Guerrero Andrade, Juan José Revelo Jojoa, Cristian Melo Alvarez, Jean Carlos Hernandez.

Twilio will close Zipwhip: first sue, then buy, then close down

We covered this acquisition when it was announced in CXTech Week 20 2021. Twilio tried taking Zipwhip to court, then decided buying it was the easier option. And will now consolidate 800SMS into its existing platform. The service it not closing down, rather Twilio has a platform that can do what Zipwhip does and more, so it doesn’t need their platform.

Zipwhip is the exclusive toll-free messaging services provider used by the carriers. Like Syniverse and Sinch are for most other A2P SMS.

I’ll not go into the politics and poor regulation (<cough> CTIA <cough>), rather check out this Columbia Law Review article. You can see Twilio referenced many times in trying to break this monopoly.

The GSMA has a good paper on this: In 2014-2015, the US big five operators contracted Zipwhip to handle toll-free text. In the GSMA paper is highlights with the introduction of Zipwhip, per-message fees rose by 3x and text providers required to pay to both send and receive toll-free messages.

It also highlights “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of text messages are being blocked each year. In most cases, no warning is given that blocking will occur and wireless subscribers typically do not receive notice that their messages have gone undelivered.” tyntec have also been through the US courts on the A2P issue as they tried to open up the US market with the Iris Wireless acquisition.

Twilio decided buying was the better option, as the US courts do not appear pro-competition after tyntec’s experience. At $850M, its likely 10X revenues. 800SMS is finally achieving broader adoption after a slow start, see above problems. Also 10DLC has made 800SMS less relevant over the past year or so.

Mark Hay did a post on Linkedin about the evolution of A2P SMS.

The comments on the post are quite funny in highlighting the divided opinion. I’d argue one side of the argument brings vastly more experience than the other.

“It’s a sign of these increasingly difficult times when messaging providers talk about using SMS text messaging for Black Friday and completely avoid mentioning RCS or WhatsApp. Worse still, they make mention of “rich SMS” (aka “SMS landing pages”), where the SMS has a link that you click on to take you to a webpage. Feels like we’ve stepped back almost 10 years.

After years of beating the drum about WhatsApp and RCS, these providers are choosing to craft their marketing communications to direct customers to use SMS. Why? Because SMS has a proven track record of making money for these providers, whereas RCS and WhatsApp don’t make them anywhere enough. And right now, these messaging providers haven’t been performing well and need to “stick to the knitting” (meaning: “concentrate on a familiar area of activity rather than diversify”) to make money. Marketing and sales activities of these messaging providers are very much focused back on SMS.

This focus on SMS is likely to continue for some time to come as these messaging providers focus their marketing and sales activities on the much needed tried-and-tested sources of revenue and profit. Don’t be fooled by the smoke and mirrors that might make it look otherwise.”

TADSummit is Next Week, 8/9 Nov in Aveiro Portugal and Online

It’s the final preparations for TADSummit 2022 8/9 Nov in Aveiro Portugal and online. Last time I prepared badges was 2019. This is the 10th year of TADSummit, no BS thought leadership in programmable telecoms.

Thank you to RingCentral, Radisys, STROLID, Broadvoice / GoContact, Stacuity, and AWA Network / Automat Berlin for sponsoring TADSummit 2022, see banner below. Without their support TADSummit does not happen.

Agenda
Timings
Logistics
Registration

Ways to think about a metaverse

Bottom-line, there is no metaverse strategy, just monitor either through active involvement with the technology and ecosystems, or a paper monitoring exercise with a few demos to be ready to create a plan of action when the timing could soon be right.

I remember experiencing WAP in 1999. It was a disappointment, that experience helped me understand it would remain niche. USSD / SMS could deliver most use cases without the WAP configuration or menu hell. It would not become mass-market. Now some WAP companies made good money selling WAP gateways and then selling themselves. Granted the telcos and the acquiring companies were left wondering what just happened.

That’s the point, active experimenting, trailing ideas, putting some of those demos into your employees, partners, and select customers hands enables informed decisions to be made than simply following the herd on fashionable ideas and wasting in some cases billions.

eSIM 5 years later

Bottom-line: iPhone 14 going eSIM only in North America has changed the market. And that’s why at TADSummit we have several eSIM presentations, the timing will soon be right:

eSIM Reality.

Fredric Liljeström, Co-founder and CEO, 10T Tech

• What is eSIM and what it is not
• Current eSIM adoption
• Challenges to eSIM adoption
• Technical and Operational challenges
  • Consumer
  • M2M and IoT
• There is a very bright future!

How a Multi-IMSI architecture makes global cellular IoT deployments manageable

Tobias Goebel, Principal Product Marketing Manager, IoT, Twilio

• Fragmented landscape of IoT connectivity
• Challenges of cross-border cellular connectivity
• Pros and cons of the different SIM deployment architectures that exist today
• How Multi-IMSI SIM profiles on eSIMs simplify interregional and international deployments

eSIM as Root of Trust for IoT security

João Casal, Head of R&D at Truphone

• ARCADIAN-IoT: Research with eSIM as key element of a novel IoT security framework
• SIM: Proven secure element
• Leveraging cellular network authentication for zero-touch authentication of IoT devices in third-party services
• The eSIM ecosystem role in new security mechanisms for IoT
• IoT connectivity and IoT security: 2 faces of the same coin

Opinion Versus Experience in A Linkedin Post on Video Compression

This was a funny post, people were getting their knickers in the twist on Zoom filtering the video because it took less bitrate to encode, hence the service works better. They were concerned their wrinkles were being removed in some unapproved AI-based beauty enhancement.

I’ve worked on video coding back in the ’90s, I explained what was happening, its spatial filtering. My expertise on what was happening was reduced to yet another opinion, by people with no expertise on video coding.

Even when I try to help people understand what is happening, they seem to focus on the silly discussions about the ‘reality’ of communications when they assume AI is somehow involved <sigh>.

It reminded me of some of the conversations I had with neighbors about well-established facts like evolution and that children can spread COVID. And in both those cases I gave up trying, as their opinion was clearly superior to the scientific community and rational thought. Thank goodness children are taught at school the difference between facts and opinions these days as their parents clearly were not.

Webex by Cisco Claims

Better not tell Vonage, Twilio and its ecosystem, etc. that “Cisco is the only company that can deliver a fully integrated UCaaS (Webex Suite), CCaaS (Webex Contact Center) and CPaaS (Webex Connect) portfolio for CX.”

The claim we live in a ‘Digital Era’ reminded me of a similar claim made in the 1970s of the “Digital Era” of audio. And here’s another article listing out all the digital innovations from the 1970s, where they posit the Digital Era began. So it’s a relatively long technology era at 50 years.

As I keep reading in the news, we live in an era of no shame. I guess that’s also true for technology marketing, just say whatever comes to mind with no repercussions.

Route Mobile vs Tanla Platforms

The India stock market has not had the hammering we’ve seen in say Europe with Sinch and Link Mobility dropping by 90%. Tanla and Route Mobile, both aggregators, are still looking quite good. The comments from the analysts on potential are quite accurate, and definitely more M&A could be coming, even given the current state of capital markets, there’s still cash looking for investments.

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Hunter Blankenbaker is now Vice President Investor Relations at Barnes & Noble Education. I’ve known Hunter since our children went to the same pre-kindergarten school, and while waiting for our kids he asked me if I was in high tech – he’d watched some of the videos from TADSummit.

Fredrik Granström is now Chairman of the Board at BLING Startup. I’ve known Fredrik since his time at Streamson, when they helped the start-up I founded Teltier.

Annie Steur is now Sr. Director, Growth Marketing at Bandwidth.

Aruna Nadesan is now Vice President, Head of Products at Finvi.

Ben Teitelbaum is now Engineering Manager at Google.

Arun Sharma is now Strategic Product Manager at Ericsson

Olivier Perrault is now Chief Information Security Officer of Orange Business Services. I’ve known him since he was the Telco 2.0 Director at France Telecom.

Liran Ravid is now VP Amdocs Insights Marketing

Prabhat Gautam is now Project Manager at MindInventory.

I arrived into Schiphol for Network X the week before last, there were no trains running to RAI. So iI took the train to Amsterdam Suid and had a nice autumn early morning walk through Beatrixpark.

And I’ve not had to do a real banner since 2019! Thank you to RingCentral, Radisys, STROLID, Broadvoice / GoContact, Stacuity, and AWA Network / Automat Berlin for sponsoring TADSummit 2022, see banner below. Without their support TADSummit does not happen.

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