I’m referring to the Axiata presentation given at DTW24.
As the saying goes, “History is written by the winners” which is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but it’s one of those statements whose origin is much more complex. Rather, Winston Churchill was the latest to bring the phrase to general public attention.
But its not actually true, take for example the history of the American Civil War, even today it’s being changed. And in the Axiata presentation, their history is being reframed to justify a global standards based approach. Let me explain.
There were 2 groups involved in Axiata’s work on APIs. I’m grossly simplifying:
- Ideamart and hSenid Mobile are the OGs (Original Gangsters), which continues to run, and are partnering for TADHack Global again in 2024. TADHack Global 2024 website will be launched soon. From 10 years ago you can see their OG presentation given at TADSummit 2014.
- WSO2.Telco, was formed later and was absorbed back into WSO2. MIFE (Mobile Internet Fulfilment Exchange) is no longer available. You can see their presentation from TADSummit 2014. BTW Amos it doing some amazing work at Mach49, along with another TADS alum Varun Arora.
WSO2.Telco was OneAPI based, and struggled. Ideamart thrived as it was focused on small businesses and developers with easy to use templates (web pages) and APIs. It transformed Sri Lanka into a leading country-wide innovation ecosystem. The focus was local, and making things easy.
These details are skipped over for the story line presented, the establishment message is: API standards (Camara) and global APIs. Which is the antithesis of Ideamart’s success.
If a business needs global solutions, AWS, Azure, Google provide solutions with lots of partners, including telco partners for the different regions. Ideamart shows how a telco can build success, even with all the politics and complexity thrown at it form the large vendors. I’d like to send props to:
- Shafraz Rahim, the original Sri Lanka dev evangelist, who now works for AWS, and previously Google.
- Venura Mendis and Anthony Rodrigo who created the space to let the small Ideamart team thrive.
- hSenid Mobile team – who constantly go above and beyond in supporting their customers.
The establishment are not presenting reality, they are spinning a story to meet their sponsors’ demands.
Check out these 2 articles from CXTech Week 24 2024 News and Analysis on yet more establishment spin:
- Enough navel-gazing – telcos need to focus on their customers’ needs; and
- Remember the Brexit marketing of ‘Get Brexit done!” Well Network APIs have adopted it, “Get Network APIs done!”
After internet access; voice calling and text messaging are the next 2 popular services customers pay for.
But what about SMS Spam and robocalling? Shouldn’t the industry get them polished up as a matter of urgency? Customers are paying for them, and people are dying from the scams running over them.
Telcos need to urgently stop wishful thinking / chasing butterflies, and get focused on local matters that are impacting their customers’ health.