CXTech Week 40 2023 News and Analysis

The purpose of this CXTech Week 40 2023 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:

  • TADSummit Podcast Episode 6
  • TADSummit: How much does an A2P SMS cost? CPaaS and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
  • Blast from the Past: TADHack-mini Chicago 2015
  • Mark Schauer from RealClearPolicy on the problems with The Campaign Registry
  • Essential Guide to Cloud Communications and Compliance and Cybersecurity
  • Syniverse updated CSP’s Ts&Cs
  • RTC Security Newsletter Sept
  • The Future is Cloudy: Cloudification of Wholesale Telecom
  • Scott Warner’s The Month in Telecoms: Sept 2023
  • The Communications Risk Show: Turning Bank ID into Caller ID
  • People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

TADSummit Podcast Episode 6

Podcast Directory – you’ll see we have a TADSummit Podcast Special on Wednesday 11th Oct with Tim McLain from Commio.

TADSummit Innovators

Mike Bromwich and Tim Dowling introduce Stacuity, the programmable IoT network. This is a great introduction to how Stacuity began, why they are creating a new category of a developer centric programmable IoT network. They’ve built their own core and connected to IPX. When they presented at TADSummit last year, their vision was clear and challenging. Well, they’ve built it and are now inviting developers to hack on it at TADHack. And you’ll be able to meet them at TADSummit in Paris.

Truth_In_Telecoms with Johnny Tarone

What a week! On the political messaging front there was this article from Mark Schauer of realclearpolicy on the problems with the The Campaign Registry.

The complaint from Bill Peters corroborates the article’s concerns with a specific instance of political SMS campaign interference,  Do not get side-tracked on which party is in control, what matters is the messaging monopolies must be impartial, and it’s clear they are not. We need a code of conduct that includes ethics and compliance, in addition to clear and stated processes.

We also review what’s next now Tata Communications owns Kaleyra / TCR. Johnny mentions the 20% bonuses being awarded to the employees, though those receiving restricted stock units (RSUs) made much more.

I received last night a copy of an email allegedly sent to a TCR Partner by TCR. I’m still verifying who received the email across TCR’s partners. If you did, please let me know. Regardless it shows that a CSP can not own TCR, as even the potential to send such an email can not be allowed.

We wrap up on the exciting news that Bill Peters will be presenting at TADSummit on “How much does an A2P SMS cost? CPaaS and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).” This will definitely be eye opener, and is important insight for everyone in the programmable communications industry.

I know the past few weeks have been like drinking from a firehose given everything published, but the facts must be presented, so we can make the case for urgent action by the industry.

TADSummit: How much does an A2P SMS cost? CPaaS and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)

Bill Peters, CFO Startup to Exit – Founder of InphoMatch/Mobile 365 and The Campaign Registry.

Bill was the Co-Founder and VP Finance of Inphomatch all the way back in 2000, the first US intercarrier SMS gateway. Once upon a time SMS only worked between customers on the same carrier, SMS wasn’t very popular back then. Inphomatch solved that and was acquired by Mobileway and rebranded Mobile 365, where Bill was VP Finance and Group Controller through to when Mobile 365 was sold to Sybase in Oct 2006 for $425M, Bill continued in Finance though to the sale to SAP.

Bill has unprecedented knowledge of the accounting games played by some of the CPaaS providers. I’ve talked about how difficult it is to determine the actual cost of an SMS. The basic unit for many programmable communication services. This will be an invaluable masterclass for everyone at TADSummit to better understand the fundamental costs of our industry; and why some CPaaS continue to struggle to make a profit.

Questions:

  • How much is an SMS?
  • Why can the price of an SMS from an aggregator be below the published cost, at volume, for a carrier / region?
  • I hear some aggregators do not deliver all the SMS in a campaign, is that true?
  • Why do prepayments generate such a steep discount?
  • Why does Twilio continue to struggle to make a profit? Where is it loosing money across all its services? SIP Trunking and FLEX should be easy money earners?
  • Why do local aggregators (in-country) get such low pricing from the local carriers?

Blast from the Past: TADHack-mini Chicago 2015

TADHack-mini Chicago ran over the weekend of the 3-4 October, just before the RTC Conference. We had 50 people involved with diverse backgrounds from of course IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) students; through people in finance, manufacturing, and supply; many of which were not hard-core coders. TADHacks really are for everyone.

Mark Schauer from RealClearPolicy on the problems with The Campaign Registry

Check out this post from Mark Schauer of #realclearpolicy on the problems with the The Campaign Registry.

The complaint from Bill Peters corroborates the article’s concerns with a specific instance of political SMS campaign interference, https://alanquayle.com/2023/09/william-peters-plaintiff-versus-kaleyra-defendant/.

It doesn’t matter which party you think is winning in the suppression of election messaging, the Messaging Monopolies must be neutral, have published policies, and codes of conduct that ensure neutrality.

Essential Guide to Cloud Communications and Compliance and Cybersecurity from Commio

If you or I think TCR processes are byzantine, just imagine how bad it is for non-telecom businesses!

To counter this Commio have produces an ebook, the Essential Guide for Cloud Comms Compliance & Cybersecurity. An essential guide for secure, compliant VoIP & SMS, including:

  • How to ensure your calls aren’t labeled SPAM (and what to do if they are)
  • SMS/MMS best practices to keep customers and carriers happy
  • How providers can protect their businesses and their customers

We also have a TADSumnit Special Podcast to interview Tim McLain on the ebook on 11th Oct.

Syniverse updated CSP’s Ts&Cs

Syniverse updated CSP’s Ts&Cs, see end of post. Soon only one CSP will be viable, Twilio. I wonder who invested $750M in Syniverse?

This situation can be avoided, programmable comms is being squeezed out of existence.

What the new Ts&Cs at the end of the post mean is:

1) Stalls, slows, stops sales and upsells. It also forces CSPs to change who they target.
2) Many organizations lack headcount to tackle service and platform security to stop hackers from taking over accounts and sending bad traffic.
3) On top of that, all of the CSP’s customers need part/full-time resources to understand and implement compliance measures for both voice and messaging.

Check out this post on what are the messaging monopolies in the US: https://lnkd.in/dPczhKfw

DCA Syniverse is no longer allowing ANY unregistered traffic. The following was added to all CSPs fees list on Friday:

Escalated Spam Review
Customers using 10DLC messaging services will be subject to increased fees and charges if their campaigns are subject to Escalated Spam Review by our direct carrier aggregator (DCA). The new fees, effective 9/29/23, can be avoided if you and any sub accounts following brand and campaign registration and content guidelines to avoid spam complaints; increase platform/service cybersecurity to prevent data breaches and hacker logins leading to the transmission of spam content; closely monitor opt-out rates and spam complaints and proactively pausing or deactivating suspicious campaigns in real time. The two DCA fees are as follows:

1. $500 Charge Per 10DLC Campaign Impacted by Escalated Spam Review
If one or more carriers request this review and it is discovered that our customer “has taken no action to deactivate the 10DLC campaign or associated brand prior to the review” this charge will apply. If the CSP’s customer deactivates the campaign prior to the review, and this is reflected in The Campaign Registry (TCR) and verified by our DCA, the $500 charge will not apply.

2. $1,000 Incremental Surcharge Per Brand for Suspended or Deactivated Campaigns
If a brand has more than five (5) 10DLC campaigns suspended or deactivated due to an Escalated Spam review, the customer will be liable for an overage rate of $1,000 for each additional campaign that exceeds the included five (5) 10DLC campaigns per brand. These charges are in U.S. dollars and subject to change upon notice. Charges do not include applicable taxes or duties, which are the sole responsibility of their customer.

RTC Security Newsletter Sept

Covered this month’s must read RTC security news:

  • Their news, including the WebRTC & Video Delivery presentation they gave at CommCon; OpenSIPIt and their Attack Platform
  • Security fixes in FreeSWITCH, OpenScape, Stormshield and DLINK phones
  • GPRS Tunneling Protocol user-plane (GTP-U) abuse, Signal upgraded for quantum computing and SBOMs

The Future is Cloudy: Cloudification of Wholesale Telecom

Thank you to Isabelle Paradis of HotTelecom for inviting me to the panel. Below is Isabelle interviewing me at TADSummit 2019 in London.

I’ll be on the Mobile Ecosystem Forum panel “The Future is Cloudy: Cloudification of Wholesale Telecom” led by Isabelle Paradis of HotTelecom. I’m really happy Ameed Jamous will also be on the panel as he is leading this very topic with TelecomsXChange (TCXC). BTW he’s also a sponsor of TADSummit 😉

In my opinion cloud is a second order issue, it’s the adoption of open source which happens to be built for the cloud that dramatically shifts the wholesale telecom business. Which either requires telcos make the move to a techco (own their implementation); or partner with companies like TelecomsXChange (TCXC) (who run on behalf of).

Expect a diversity of opinions, a solid real-world focus, and no telcowash!

Scott Warner’s The Month in Telecoms: Sept 2023

Scott (ex-tyntec university) covers our work on the TCR Trilogy, which is a growing series:

On the Telco versus Techno, the only way Telcos can achieve this transition is through the adoption of free and open source telecom software to own their roadmap and remove their legacy software vendors. Now what do you think the chances are of that happening? There even an example of what happens if mobile operators do not, fixed line telcos.

The Communications Risk Show: Turning Bank ID into Caller ID

When Randy Warshaw pointed out at 1h03m on the video how The Campaign Registry fails to authenticate the entity registering, rather the publicly available information on the claimed entity. He confirmed what we’ve been pointing out through the TCR Trilogy and Messaging Monopolies posts, see above.

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Joe Burton recently left Telesign and has joined Reputation.

 Carolyn Anderson is now SVP, Head of Marketing, Point of Sale Lending at Elavon, Inc. U’ve known Carolyn since her time in Sigma Systems.

Pete Briggs is now Public Sector Sales Manager at C4 Ulysses Ltd.

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