CXTech Week 13 2024 News and Analysis

The purpose of this CXTech Week 13 2024 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:

TADHack Open 2024 Results
Podcast 47: TADSummit Innovators. Robert Wakeling, Wadaro
Podcast 46: Truth in Telecoms, Revenge of the Messaging Monopolies
Podcast 45: Truth in Telecoms, Coverups
Podcast 44: Truth in Telecoms, Please Express your Public Support to Puja Amin
Podcast 43: TADSummit Innovators, Uku Tomikas, Messente
Podcast 42: TADSummit Innovators, The Czar knocks it out of the park!
The Campaign Registry is trying to sell itself (again)
Hackathon Reality
People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

I skipped last week’s CXTech because of TADHack Open 2024, so here’s the Spring Break bumper edition. The intensity of a hackathon made me forget just how crazy the past couple of weeks have been.

TADHack Open 2024 Results

Videos

Pictures

Things have finally returned to pre-pandemic levels, we had 15 hacks submitted from around the world at TADHack Open. An amazing result. SignalWire wowed developers with impressive tooling for its AI Agent. Devs were ‘effervescent’ at the focus on making it easy to use SignalWire. STROLID made it so easy for developers, that even through Thomas was on a plane traveling back from Melbourne in Australia for most of the event, the teams sank their teeth into some impressive vCon projects.

SignalWire Winner – Jazz Health Assistant from Team Jazz, $2k prize

Team Jazz: Jared Ashcraft, David Sikes, John Wilder

A groundbreaking software application designed to revolutionize diabetes management within families, especially for the elderly. This innovative tool meticulously tracks blood sugar levels, ensuring that any irregularities are promptly reported to family members. By providing real-time, actionable insights, the application empowers families to proactively manage their loved one’s diabetes with greater precision and understanding. The enhanced visibility and control over health data this tool offers, facilitates a more informed and compassionate care-giving experience, ultimately improving the quality of life for elderly diabetic patients.

Github

STROLID Winner, $2k Prize

Team: Suraj Shivakumar, Nagasai Saikam, Divya Sakhare, Akshata Salunkhe.

A fully functional product that generates a vCon and redacts all PII (Personal Identifiable Information).

Github

Runners Up

Lonely Bot by Mike Cairns powered by Signalwire. Utilize AI and LLM’s with SignalWire’s technology to curb loneliness. Have a trusted friend to talk with, and automatically reach out to family when Lonely Bot notices you need a human touch.

moodsense by Pam Mishaw and Rob Parha powered by Signalwire. Here’s the webpage for their app. I’m not supposed to express favorites, but all families have relatives that struggle with mental health. Most families do not talk about it, even amongst themselves, that makes things so much worse. A relative can becomes almost catatonic before things get noticed, we’re all busy. This simple app could become so much more in helping the relative and family, often there is no easy answer, but coping better can be good enough.

DazerWorld by Fractal. You can rely on Fractal to use tools in unusual ways. He took the SignalWire AI Agent and created this video. We’re just scratching the surface of mashing up comms with GenAI.

Health Base. Helping the aging population stay at home with environmental sensors and remote call escalation to ensure medical compliance. A vast hack integrating many innovative health monitoring devices, such as remote breath monitoring.

Avacado Intelligence. An impressive first hack from Valencia College students. This team will go places. Rebecca, representing Valencia College West Campus, warmly greets callers and collects their information, including name and VID (Valencia College ID), for record-keeping. She then inquires about the reason for the call, offering departmental options such as Advising Center, Enrollment Services, and Financial Aid Office. Based on the caller’s choice, Rebecca transfers the call accordingly or provides voicemail options. Utilizing special instructions, she clarifies ambiguous requests by asking targeted questions based on keywords mentioned. If needed, Rebecca directs callers to the Answer Center for further assistance, ensuring personalized and efficient service throughout the call.

Check out all the hacks in the TADHack Open 2024 playlist.

Enterprise Connect, TADHack Report

On Monday 25th March at Enterprise Connect between 1:00-1:45PM we gave the TADHack Report, where some of the winners present in-person at the Gaylord Palms, Orlando FL. Room Sun D.

Podcast 47: TADSummit Innovators. Robert Wakeling, Wadaro

I’ve known Robert since he founded Wadaro. Here’s a piece I wrote about Wadaro in 2012. It was Tim Pickup that introduced us. Wadaro have been focused on SIM apps since Robert’s previous company Magic4 was bought by Openwave.

What prompted Robert to start Wadaro is not having mobile signal at the back of his home. He called the carrier, and they were adamant, based on their data, he should have signal.

The usual, ‘it’s not me, its you!’ So Rob met with the carrier and understood they used tools that only approximated customer experience, for example drive tests. They did not actually measure the experience customer’s received. While using a SIM app he could deliver that data.

Hence Wadaro’s journey. It was Safaricom in Africa that proved his idea and they scaled up across that carrier. Wadaro are a technology and services company, they partner with many SIM companies as their contingency based sales force. Deals are struck directly with carriers and governments.

There are numerous use cases. For example independently proving a vendor has implemented a network to the agreed coverage and performance. Regulators confirming coverage and performance targets are meeting those agreed in the license. Optimizing network investment to maximize customer experience impact. Actually knowing what customers are experiencing with respect to dropped calls, signal level, and data throughput. Detecting SIM farms. Intelligence at security incidents. The list goes on.

What is really exciting is building on Wadaro’s success into micro-lending using a SIM app and blockchain technology. For me the new things I learned are the global customer base Wadaro has built, and the micro-lending app shows lots of potential for emerging markets.

Podcast 46: Truth in Telecoms, Revenge of the Messaging Monopolies

Today, Robert Gerstmann, Chairman of the MEF released a letter to its members. I received the letter from a number of people in Europe. They were angered and surprised that Robert Gerstmann from Sinch was conflating what Eric J. Troutman wrote in reaction to Puja J. Amin being kicked off a MEF panel with our extensive body of work. For example, Messaging Monopolies is systematically ignored by the MEF.

Robert’s letter continues to enforce that MEF policy of ignoring our content, at least that is publicly exposed. The sources were also angered at being told what to read and engage with, it reeks of 1984 newspeak.

Eric has shared all the communications with the MEF leading up to Puja being kicked off the panel, please read them. The MEF could have resolved that issue with a public apology. Yet Dario’s statement at the MEF event, and Robert’s letter show a detachment from reality. Please Robert, gather all the facts, this does not look good for you, Sinch, and the MEF.

Please understand the continued terrible treatment of Puja and the coverup of the spamming of America are two separate issues. Do not let Robert’s letter get away with conflating them.

Our body of work on the Messaging Monopolies has been ignored by the MEF. Our contention is the MEF ignores at the behest of some of their sponsors, e.g. TCR, Aegis Mobile, and Netnumber.

In this podcast Johnny speaks directly to Robert, he needs to get the facts. At the end of this podcast I include the interview Johnny did with Troutman Amin LLP from timecode 16:15. Johnny was Johnny, and Eric did a good job focusing the conversation, it’s like riding a wild bull. At the end of the interview (time code 45:30) listen to the lawyers discussing how they believe Johnny and will investigate further. And here’s Puja’s review of the interview with Johnny.

Our focus is simple, stop the spamming of America, cease the cover ups, and engage with our published work. As Johnny closes, the issues raised in the Telecom Triopoly post could lead to an antitrust case. Apple’s case was just the beginning of the return of antitrust.

And do not forget to express your support for Puja.

Podcast 45: Truth in Telecoms, Coverups

Uku, Messente

This week we had an excellent podcast with Uku from Messente communications. He is the leader most members of the SMS industry point to as THE most trustworthy leader, he’s the real-deal.

He and Ira Cohen from MMDSmart at an event both said they would prefer published pricing for SMS, so they can focus on their value add, to help make the industry more honest. Unfortunately, their view is rather uncommon in the SMS industry.

During the Podcast Uku expressed his frustration with SMS scammers, you could see the raw emotion, we need to get this out in the open and find solutions. We’ve reviewed on this podcast several of them from TNID, TelecomsXChange, Sekura.id, etc. And Uku is evaluating them.

Shortly after the podcast a scam appeared abusing the Messente brand. If anyone sees it, please let Messente know. Here’s the link to Uku’s post on that. This shows how the scammers want to stop this problem being discussed, rather, let it fester.

Robert Vis stated clearly on the TADSummit Podcast SMS scammers should be jailed, they are crooks. They are pushing businesses away from SMS. American Express, Bank of America are just a few of the enterprises moving away from SMS. Traffic is down, and per SMS prices are up as carriers try to maintain revenues. There’s a vicious cycle of short-termism taking place that continues to make SMS less attractive as a channel. We must stop the coverups, get the truth out there, and solve the problems.

Ira Cohen had a great metaphor: Messaging fraud is an infection that has festered over the last 20 years, which may lead, despite the ubiquity and value of SMS, to business messaging’s demise. Can the industry get the medicine before it’s too late to save the patient? Pretending there’s no infection (cover up) is NOT the right approach.

Puja

The other interesting news this week was the protest at Puja from Troutman Amin LLP being kicked off a MEF panel. Ignore the style around this story, focus on FACTS.

1) Eric presented an analysis of a FCC filing about the TCR, his analysis was good.

2) Shortly afterwards Puja (partner at their law firm Troutman Amin) was kicked off a MEF panel on International Womens Day. Tone deaf behavior.

3) Puja was furious, she stood up for herself and protested outside the MEF. Now, how you view that protest is irrelevant, that’s a style issue, focus on the FACTS. Puja was kicked off a panel after Eric reviewed a FCC filing about the TCR. Dario. CEO of the MEF, claimed to the protesters Puja was too busy to attend the event. Eric/Puja stated that was a lie. Bottom-line: the MEF continues to cover up what’s going on at the TCR as one of its board members / sponsors is Kaleyra.

4) Then, overnight after the protest, Eric was now cool with MEF. He thinks the 3 female board members were introduced because of their actions. Those board members were announced in February. And Puja may be added to the board, they’ll need to become a member of MEF, and there will need a round of voting as far as I know of MEF board procedures. Eric is still waiting for GMoney (what Johnny calls Robert Gerstmann of Sinch and the new chairman of MEF).

5) I dunno what Puja thinks about this. I dunno if Eric will investigate further on the TCR, I’ve asked.

The TCR cover up continues by the MEF, they’re a laundromat, washing the industry’s dirty laundry. We’ve seen this week a public demonstration of how that cover-up continues.

Who Framed Bill Peters?

A core question that remains unanswered is who actually framed Bill Peters. This is discussed in Bill Peter’s Complaint on the person who likely did the physical deed, but who ordered it?

Johnny is releasing his emails from this journey. The first one sent June 25th 2022 to Soren Schafft (CEO TCR), Tor Soevik, Stefan Heller, and Kirk Tsai (all of the TCR). Subject: I’m terrified

The only thing in the world capable of scaring me is truly stupid people. And I don’t think I have ever met two dumber ones than you guys.
You guys came to me wanting help with solving your problem. You told me how much you hated Dario and how arrogant he behaved towards you both and how he belittled you. You wanted to lock arms and join forces then to do a management buyout based on the threat that you would walk out.
Soren, you said that Stefan and Kirk were the key people and if they walked out you would all be screwed, but you did not want them to know what you were doing. What you guys wanted to do is called extortion and you clearly have been watching far to many TV movies. I went to potential capital partners and then my long time attorney and friend, Frederick (“Rick”) Joyce came back from vacation and I presented the situation to him. He did something that even shocked me, told me to step aside and took over from there. Soren, I sent you a text stating that I wanted to talk with you and get on the same page. Instead, you chose to ignore me and Rick!
I feel bad because you both worked very hard and achieved great things with TCR to get to this point. You guys came to me after Dario had tried to sell the deal to Twilio who would no doubt just shut it down because it would be in their interest. That was his thought process. Rick made an offer that would have kept you two fools in charge and given you substantial equity. Instead, you went to an Indian-owned group and tried to get the capital from them. Amazing! Rick Joyce is one of the kindest and toughest men I have ever met. I recommend you take a look at his bio. Soren, I even tried to call you and explain this to you. You answered the phone with “fuck you” and hung up. All right, suit yourself.
I am sending this to you both, actually more as a form of therapy for myself. I would never have even bothered trying to help you if I had known how dumb you both really were.
One more thing: I have worked in this sector for decades and have a great many friends.
Take this any way you want but I will not talk with either of you as I am terrified by the lack of even the most elementary business sense in you both.
You may want to reach out and have coffee with Rick and talk some sense. I can assure you he will not go away.
I’m headed back to the Golf course!

Giovanni Tarone

Then on July 18 2022 is from Johnny to Dario Calgero (CEO of Kaleyra at the time), Avi Katz (Chairman of Kaleyra), and Giacomo Dall’Aglio (CFO of Kaleyra). Subject: Nda tcr/keleyra

Guys, I received this below from Soren. I am truly sorry we never got an opportunity to talk.I was minding my own business when I got a call to help these guys. I attached an email I wrote to Laurel and Hardy (my nickname for them) please read in case you care about how we got here. I also have no problem getting on a call with anybody and anytime. I WAS solicited and hence the nda below. I also received a deck prepared by your team that I will send you.
Again this could have all been discussed if not for these two.
My cell is xxx xxx-xxxx if anyone cares at this point. Like I told them Rick will not go away.
Giovanni Tarone

Podcast 44: Truth in Telecoms, Please Express your Public Support to Puja Amin

I wanted to share from the Deserve to Win Podcast Ep 23 something I found very powerful and wanted to highlight. It’s the shock and frustration Puja Amin expressed from being kicked off the MEF panel.

AND also the frustration at the lack of support from the industry.

Puja stood up to the abuse she received, as you’ll see at the end of the clip. It is truly amazing, a first in the mobile industry.

It’s on all of us to express our support to Puja. To the girl-dads in the industry, the MEF board members and its new chairman, to the leaders across the messaging industry, please express your support to Puja directly and publicly for standing up for herself. I hope that this event will drive culture change in the male dominated mobile messaging industry.

Podcast 43: TADSummit Innovators, Uku Tomikas, Messente

Uku Tomikas is the CEO of Messente. He began as a sales person, and has risen to become the CEO. Messente was spun out of an Estonian ICT (Information and Communications Technology) group in 2013 that focuses on mobile software; and has been profitable since 2013. Well done!

Messente focuses on business messaging. No claims of being a CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service), just a pure focus on helping customers be successful using messaging for their business communications.

Customer trust is a core value for Messente. They build that trust through decade long relationships and advising customers on how to optimize their use of messaging to achieve their business objectives. Specifically, on ensuring local brand registration, on best practices for gathering and cleaning customer data, on campaign best practices, on frankly sharing their costs and margins.

Messente will not play games to offer a ‘special; SMS rate. Uku pointed out he would rather SMS rate pricing be publicly available, so he could focus on Messente’s value-add. Ira Cohen was name checked as a great guest for the TADSummit Podcast when this point came up.

Uku’s approach to losing a customer is interesting, he sees it as a chance for their customer to understand how trustworthy Messente is as their partner. He stated, “often within 6 months they are back.”

We had some interesting and frank discussions on the changes in the industry. There’s an overall decline in SMS volumes by 10-15%, driven by one time passcode decline. AIT (Artificially Inflated Traffic) was not good for the industry, large brands such as Bank of America and American Express have moved away from SMS to other channels and processes. It’s not clear they will come back.

As telcos can no longer demand such large prepayments given traffic decline, they’ve increased per SMS prices to maintain revenues, which puts a further squeeze on addressable use cases and pushes more enterprises to alternative channels. We’re seeing that in the US as well.

Given the challenging economic and investment situation, roll-ups will be likely. There was an interesting discussion on whether Messente could become a nucleus for such a roll-up. Uku was circumspect as culture is critical to Messente’s success. Roll-ups could impact that and replicating Messente’s culture with a existing business is difficult, if not impossible.

The conversation moved onto the importance of Identity, Uku has agreed to review TNID’s offer, to see if he thinks that could address the SMS spam problem plaguing the US.

We also made fun of Juniper’s latest CPaaS landscape as it missed Messente, it also missed Telnyx, Voximplant, Unifonic, etc. It conflates many disparate offers such as wholesale interconnect with SMS aggregators to broader unintegrated offers with disparate platforms (part of the omnichannel lie in CPaaS Robert Vis mentioned). Some of the revenues sizes are wrong. I’m not even going to link to it. Its marketing material for its sponsors, nothing else.

Uku is the leader most messaging leaders point to as being the best in the business. Through our discussion it is clear trust, customer focus, and focusing on being the best advisor in business messaging success thanks to over one decade of institutional knowledge are some of the keys.

A First in the Mobile Industry

This is a first for the mobile industry, protests outside Mobile Ecosystem Forum event, because Puja J. Amin (aka Queenie) was kicked off the MEF panel because Eric J. Troutman reviewed an Federal Communications Commission comment filed by Latham & Watkins on the The Campaign Registry (https://lnkd.in/dYaAFuPX).

#standwithpuja

Follow Eric J. Troutman on LinkedIn to see all his posts around this topic. This short on Eric’s YouTube channel (https://lnkd.in/d_XY6VQt), Queenie considers the reason she was kicked off the MEF panel. If you follow TADSummit you’ll know Eric is sharing facts, and we’ve gone into much more detail. Here is Eric’s post on his review of a comment filed by Latham & Watkins on the The Campaign Registry (https://lnkd.in/dYaAFuPX).

Here’s last week’s “TADSummit Podcast, What the MEF?” where we covered the beginning of this story https://lnkd.in/dsepe-vB. Remember the root of all this is the spamming of America as the old-boys network tries to suppress the truth of the Messaging Monopolies, https://lnkd.in/eyR_iY3G, and Telecom Triopoly, https://lnkd.in/er7BWAU6.

https://tcpaworld.com/2024/03/19/breaking-holy-smokes-protests-erupt-outside-mobile-ecosystem-forum/

Protests outside MEF event https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-B6rPTjXJXE?feature=share

When Dario claimed Puja was too busy https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vs9znYA1imk?feature=share

MEF has done the usual telco industry behaviour of ignoring and hoping it goes away. Many of you have seen my comments on the silliness with OneAPI, Camara, OpenGateway, etc. The industry just ignores me, and history repeats.

Troutman Amin LLP have published everything from their interactions with the MEF on their blog, read through it and draw your own conclusions. This is not some internet campaign because the MEF is too successful. Puja is standing up for herself, in a way I never would be brave enough to do. And I’ve been publishing how the old-boys network is making money on the spamming and scamming of America. Wholesale change is desperately required.

Tata Communications the owners of TCR have paid to send people to my home at 8 PM on a Saturday with documents to intimidate my family. Johnny found a stranger talking to his 5 year old daughter when they served documents on him. Tata Communications at the start of this year sent a New Year’s present of a cease and desist letter. All my work is based on publicly available documents, or forwarded to me, like Robert Gerstmann’s note to MEF members by MEF members discussed by what is happening to the MEF, just because one of its sponsors is the TCR / Kalyera / Tata Communications.

Podcast 42: TADSummit Innovators, The Czar knocks it out of the park!

WOW! Check out this clip from the Czar, Eric Troutman, where he makes the case that TCR (The Campaign Registry) is against free speech. Which we also made the case in the Messaging Monopolies.

Subscribe to the Czar’s channel as the interview with Johnny will be coming out soon.

SMS is an IP service, it’s unregulated. Yet through the TCR the carriers are able to control speech as the Czar points out.

We covered this in the Telecom Triopoly post, TCR is their design to extract their fair share from SMS. But it also enables so much more control.

TADSummit channel is still in the naughty box of YouTube. Podcast 41 campaign was disapproved for edited video. And again we’re not violating YouTube’s policies. I’m hoping this problem will be resolved soon as someone has a malicious campaign against the TADSummit Channel.

Anyway, just wanted to highlight Eric’s video on the TCR’s impact on free speech, and to recommend you subscribe to the Czar’s channel. The ‘Johnny’ interview should be interesting.

The Campaign Registry is trying to sell itself (again)

The gossip from MWC was The Campaign Registry is trying to sell itself (again). Johnny released 2 weeks ago the emails he sent to the TCR management team and Kaleyra board in 2022 after their first failed attempt.

Additional information:
* Podcast 45: Truth in Telecoms, Coverups
https://lnkd.in/e3CJva4a
* Podcast 46: Truth in Telecoms, Revenge of the Messaging Monopolies
https://lnkd.in/dXzFR4qY

From: Johnny Tarone
Date: June 25, 2022 at 8:32:09 AM EDT
To: Soren Schafft, Tor Soevik, Stefan Heller, Kirk Tsai
Subject: I’m terrified

The only thing in the world capable of scaring me is truly stupid people. And I don’t think I have ever met two dumber ones than you guys.

You guys came to me wanting help with solving your problem. You told me how much you hated Dario and how arrogant he behaved towards you both and how he belittled you. You wanted to lock arms and join forces then to do a management buyout based on the threat that you would walk out.

Soren, you said that Stefan and Kirk were the key people and if they walked out you would all be screwed, but you did not want them to know what you were doing. What you guys wanted to do is called extortion and you clearly have been watching far to many TV movies. I went to potential capital partners and then my long time attorney and friend, Frederick (“Rick”) Joyce came back from vacation and I presented the situation to him. He did something that even shocked me, told me to step aside and took over from there. Soren, I sent you a text stating that I wanted to talk with you and get on the same page. Instead, you chose to ignore me and Rick!

I feel bad because you both worked very hard and achieved great things with TCR to get to this point. You guys came to me after Dario had tried to sell the deal to Twilio who would no doubt just shut it down because it would be in their interest. That was his thought process. Rick made an offer that would have kept you two fools in charge and given you substantial equity. Instead, you went to an Indian-owned group and tried to get the capital from them. Amazing! Rick Joyce is one of the kindest and toughest men I have ever met. I recommend you take a look at his bio. Soren, I even tried to call you and explain this to you. You answered the phone with “fuck you” and hung up. All right, suit yourself.

I am sending this to you both, actually more as a form of therapy for myself.

You may want to reach out and have coffee with Rick and talk some sense. I can assure you he will not go away.

(Here’s proof Frederick (“Rick”) Joyce has not gone away with his post to the Federal Communications Commission, https://lnkd.in/dnfcu4sc)

Full text of Johnny’s emails here: https://lnkd.in/d-Pna-ih

Hackathon Reality

TADHack is a passion project for a number of reasons, principally because we urgently need new blood in the telecoms / communications industry

The reality of running a hackathon: big suitcases full of pop-up banner (yes, it does fit), cameras, tripods, computers, lots of adapters and cables, coffee machine, coffee pods, cups, shopping lists for once I arrive for all the fresh produce, etc. Reuse, reduce and recycle!

TADHack Open: https://tadhack.com/2024/

Innovation is Everywhere and TADHack is for Everyone.

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Eero Tarjanne is now Chief Strategy Officer at ayoba. I’ve known Eero throughout his time in ayoba.

Marc Abrams is now Senior Technical Product Manager at SignalWire.

Gee Rittenhouse is now Vice President at Amazon Web Services (AWS). We both worked at Bell Labs when he was head of research at Bell Labs.

Marija Pavlovic is now at Salesforce as a Lead Specialist Solution Engineer. We first met when Marija was with Telesign.

Teodora Minić is now Consumer Trust and Enablement Specialist at Telesign.

Andrew Elliott is now Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at BreachRx. I’ve known Andrew since his time at Blue Jean’s networks.

Emmanuel Belleville is now Senior Director Partnerships & Distribution at almentor. I’ve known Emmanuel since his time at Etisalat.

BHADRESH PANDAV is now Co-Founder at CBMSQUARE SCAFFOLDING PRIVATE LIMITED.

You can sign up here to receive the CXTech News and Analysis by email or by my Substack.

Alan Quayle Business and Service Development

Insights on the telecom industry