CXTech Week 15 2024 News and Analysis

The purpose of this CXTech Week 15 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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My family decided at the last minute to take a short break in the Poconos over the weekend hiking, eating, and enjoying the last breadth of winter before Spring gets going full blast. The log fire at the cabin and the snow outside made it a nice treat. I was ‘hoping’ to publish the week 14 newsletter, however, given everything covered last week relaxing took a higher priority.

Covered this week:

  • At what point will the US government act?
  • Podcast 51: Truth in Telecoms, Moez is Back!
  • Podcast 50: TADSummit Innovators, Alex Quilici, YouMail
  • Spring Break Recap on Troutman Amin LLP; Mobile Ecosystem Forum; and the Spamming of America
  • FTC Appears to be getting into gear
  • Podcast 49: TADSummit Innovators, Dan Jenkins, WebRTC and more
  • Podcast 48: Truth in Telecoms, tyntec Frenzy
  • Twilio appoints Sachem Head Capital Management LP partner Andy Stafman to their board
  • March 2024 RTC Security Newsletter: Webex leak, WhatsApp and Apple WebRTC vulnerabilities
  • TADHack OPEN winners’ pitches were on fire
  • People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

At what point will the US government act?

At what point will the US government act?

Microsoft data shows China preparing to meddle in 2024 election:
https://lnkd.in/edSDPJUE

Frederick (“Rick”) Joyce was pointing this out last year on the risk from The Campaign Registry https://lnkd.in/gMg_KUth to the US election.

Mobile industry commentators associated with the the Mobile Ecosystem Forum accused Rick of xenophobia, and they had NO security clearance, while Rick as the former Chief Counsel for Chief Information Officer/Assistant Commandant for C4IT at U.S. Coast Guard has the highest.

Rick also submitted to the FCC this filing: https://lnkd.in/exPhc_TM.

Then Latham & Watkins responded to that filing (again accusing Rick of xenophobia) and that was commented on by Eric J. Troutman here: https://lnkd.in/dYaAFuPX. Shortly afterwards a partner at his law firm, Puja J. Amin. was kicked of a MEF panel.

Note China Mobile International Limited is a partner of MEF: https://lnkd.in/eND-6jDb

Here are the CFIUS email and cover letter on China being in TCR, https://lnkd.in/ef2Vyweh and https://lnkd.in/e-cTyHfN.

The Campaign Registry, Kaleyra, and Tata Communications sponsor MEF (all owned by Tata Group). While tata communications has funded sending multiple people to my and Giovanni Tarone‘s homes in an attempt to intimidate us.

Is the MEF, Tata Communications, Kaleyra, and The Campaign Registry acting in the best interests of the US?

This is not ‘some social media campaign’ these are all documented facts. Action is urgently required.

Podcast 51: Truth in Telecoms, Moez is Back!

We added a short preface to this podcast as Anson Funds (Moez Kassam) has reentered the Twilio story with this press release claiming they are behind the “departure of long-tenured director Byron Deeter and a proposal to declassify the Board.” Looks like Anson funds are going to clean up the old Twilio ‘Bessemer Board’. This will be good for the Twilio employees.

Now, through the discovery phase of Bill Peter’s arbitration Johnny and Bill believe that the framing of Bill was done by Mark Romeo, a Littler lawyer. Who is also the lawyer behind sending people to the homes of Johnny and I with a 180+ page subpoena to intimidate us. Tata Communications, you are funding this abuse.

We covered this week tyntec promoting Twilio’s routes into Mexico and Peru. This is an example of how prepayments work, and likely Twilio supported tyntec in winning that prepayment deal.

This is relevant because Twilio made a pre-payment to TCR in 2022 and received an 80% discount on reaching certain traffic volumes. When the non Italian members of the Kaleyra board learned of that discount, after Johnny informed them, the discount was removed. The suspicion is that the prepayment was also for ensuring TCR did not store any phone numbers. This design change was a surprise to Bill as the original design did include phone numbers, like the short code registry (which works). AND Bill would certainly not have agreed to such a change. Hence the current mess we see on spam SMS.

This week the current Twilio CEO (Khozema Shipchandler) blocked Johnny on Linkedin after he mentioned this TCR discount. Keep an eye on Twilio, this story is going to run as dots are being connected.

Podcast 50: TADSummit Innovators, Alex Quilici, YouMail

Alex Quilici, is the CEO of YouMail. They provide an app with a comprehensive suite of services for handling calls, spam call protection, virtual lines, and advanced visual voicemail features. For many in the TADS community, it will remind them of Voxist.

At TADSummit in 2022 we had Gerry Christensen previously from YouMail presenting on “What Everyone Needs to Know about Protecting the CPaaS Ecosystem from Unlawful Robocalls”. Slides and Video.

Because YouMail have end points across all carriers networks, they have unique insights into the spam and robocalling campaigns running over the carriers’ networks. Potentially calls in violation of the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), amongst many other insights. This database helps support their Protective Services to enterprises and other services to carriers.

Johnny was very excited on the potential of this database, you see him pushing for YouMail to go public at a $1T valuation. Or selling to a consortium of plaintiff lawyers and litigation financiers. Perhaps a little optimistic on the valuation, but Johnny keeps being proven right on these financial calls.

YouMail is protecting people from robocalling. One the the important learning Alex shared is the speed of execution between monitoring / detection and action, to close the spammer down.

Alex shared many of the current band-aids, such as branded calling and The Campaign Registry, are making the experience worse. We all pay for PSTN services, yet the experience has become far worse over the past decade.

His personal experiences with TCPA lawyers is not positive, from when YouMail was sued for a feature that responded to callers with an SMS. Alex shared his insight that the regulatory framework need to change as its out of date in today’s programmable communications environment.

On identity Alex’s view is for the big brands it works well, but for all the free / low cost telephone numbers that could be a challenge. We discussed this also in Podcast 29: TADSummit Innovators, Noah Rafalko, TNID . With the rise in the use of AI, and the sophistication and personalization of scams, people are starting to fear taking a call. Protecting consumers is essential.

This was a fun, open, frank, and wide ranging discussion. YouMail is in such a sweet position given its protections and all the insights it can generate. It reminded me a little of where Robert Wakeling is with Wadaro.

Spring Break Recap on Troutman Amin LLP; Mobile Ecosystem Forum; and the Spamming of America

A quick recap on this story as many have/are on Spring Break:

Puja J. Amin‘s law firm has published all details of their interaction with the Mobile Ecosystem Forum. https://tcpaworld.com/. I show support to any woman who stands up for herself so publicly. Puja is an example to us all. Especially given:
a) Dario Betti publicly claimed she said she was too busy to attend the MEF event, she has publicly stated that is a lie and shared all her communications with MEF; and
b) Robert Gerstmann‘s demeaning comments in a note to MEF members. I’m sure Troutman Amin LLP will resolve this. My involvement on this topic is to support Puja https://lnkd.in/gUxnVa2E, like anyone in our industry should.

My focus is the spamming and scamming of America thanks to the The Campaign Registry and the Messaging Monopolies. Note the MEF is asking its members to ignore my work. Puja and Eric consider the reason she was booted off the MEF panel is because Eric brought up the FCC submission from Frederick (“Rick”) Joyce and the weak defense from Latham & Watkins (the top law firm). This all links back to my body of work. See Messaging Monopolies, https://lnkd.in/eyR_iY3G, and Telecom Triopoly, https://lnkd.in/er7BWAU6

As always the cover up is worse than the crime.
a) MEF should have apologized for cancelling Puja’s panel at short notice. Then it would never have become an issue.
b) Puja stood up for herself, I could never do what she did, just wow!
c) MEF did the usual telco industry behaviour of ignoring and hoping it goes away.
d) Some MEF members are not happy with MEF’s role here, hence why Robert’s email was forwarded. Ignoring my work is enabling the spamming and scamming of Americans to continue. The feedback I’ve received from the industry up to this point is the analysis is correct and at the same time shocking.

No one in the telecom ecosystem should be making money off spam. My work needs an open and frank industry-wide discussion, not ignored. People’s lives are being made miserable from SMS spam and robocalling. The PSTN has become broken, yet we’re still paying for it every month!

FTC Appears to be getting into gear

Watch the Jon Stuart interview with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

Then read our body of work on the Messaging Monopolies and Telecom Triopoly:
https://lnkd.in/eyR_iY3G
https://lnkd.in/er7BWAU6

With the upcoming meeting between the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and the Carriers in DC. Will we finally see organizations being held to account? The torrent of SMS and calling spam / scams can and must be stopped. No one should be making money off spam, especially the telecoms ecosystem.

Podcast 49: TADSummit Innovators, Dan Jenkins, WebRTC and more

Dan is a man of many hats: Nimble Ape, CommCon (London 5-6 June and San Francisco 12-13 June), and Everycast (Broadcast Bridge). His focus is the merging of RTC (Real Time Communications) and Media (video streaming).

We had an interesting discussion on the emergence of Media over QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections). While still early days for that emerging standard, WebRTC remains the answer for most real-time video comms. It has potential and could herald an emerging fragmentation in video over the web, which is currently consolidated around WebRTC.

Simply, the tech giants, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc., could create their own silos based on top of Media over QUIC. The usual phases technologies go through in harmonization to make the concept possible, then specialization to make more money from market domination.

Broadcast Bridge provides a browser-based dashboard so you can manage your bridges and have your remote talent join from anywhere in the world with just a web URL Cloud media servers providing geographically close, secure and private hosting for your rooms. And a native app that acts as the direct link to your vision mixer and AV network, so you can produce professional broadcasts in real-time. See picture below.

Podcast 48: Truth in Telecoms, tyntec Frenzy

Johnny’s Linkedin post about tyntec and Twilio ensured April started with a bang.

For over one decade, and since the beginning of the TADSummit Podcast, Johnny’s been trying to sell Tyntec. The document below shows Twilio and tyntec have entered into a partnership. In this podcast you’ll see Johnny is in a party mood, stirring up a bidding frenzy across Twilio, Bird and Bandwidth. Will Johnny’s tyntec nightmare end?

Given the prepayment for Mexico is estimated to be $25M, its likely Twilio helped with that prepayment given tyntec is directing traffic for those destinations to Twilio.

Twilio appoints Sachem Head Capital Management LP partner Andy Stafman to their board

Last week Twilio struck a deal with one of the activist investors, giving them a board seat.

Twilio appoints Sachem Head Capital Management LP partner Andy Stafman to their board. The change also removes the chance of a boardroom challenge from Sachem Head in 2024 when three Twilio directors, including Chief Executive Khozema Shipchandler and board Chairman Jeff Epstein, are scheduled to stand for election.

March 2024 RTC Security Newsletter: Webex leak, WhatsApp and Apple WebRTC vulnerabilities

This is the must read newsletter for anyone in RTC, as security impacts everyone. The newsletter covers:

  • German military phone call leak and Webex
  • WhatsApp’s past VoIP stack vulnerabilities and preventing future exploits
  • Security fixes in Apple’s WebRTC framework and baresip
  • WebRTC podcast covers security with Tsahi Levent-Levi

TADHack OPEN winners’ pitches were on fire

TADHack OPEN winners’ pitches were on fire over the weekend before last. Team Jazz received 1.9k views / 20 likes and Team Garunda received 1k views / 35 likes. Never seen such numbers before.

We’re going to interview some of the teams over the coming weeks on the TADSummit Innovators podcast.

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Jean Deruelle is now Head of Engineering at Osmosis Labs. Yet more amazing talent moving away from telecoms.

Izabella Coeli is now Senior Principal Solutions Architect at Oracle. I’ve known Izabella for over one decade.

Deva DeDios is now Growth Marketing Manager – Developer at DocuSign. We first met when she was heading up developer marketing for Symbl.ai.

Marietta Wasilewska has joined Safespring responsible for People & Culture. We first met when she started with Working Group Two, that is now part of Cisco.

Artur Tyloch is now Head of Data & AI, North America at DS STREAM. He was a sponsor of TADHack and TADSummit as part of Ubuntu, and we first met back in his Nokia days.

Sofie Maddens is now Chief of the Digital Knowledge Hub Department at International Telecommunication Union Development Bureau.  I’ve known Sofie through her time in the ITU.

Osman Perksoy is now Vice President, Sales & Business Development – North America at SS8 Networks. I’ve known Osman throughout his time at Telenity.

 Pankaj Fichadia is now Head of Cloud Governance and Compliance at NAB. We met over one decade ago when I was giving courses on Cloud Computing.

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