The last session of TADSummit 2018 was a State of the Union presentation, which defined and quantified what is meant by programmable Telecoms. We then moved onto an open discussion, lead by Mark White, on how we can better communication our category to a broader audience. And wrapped up with some dates for your diary in 2019.

The State of the Union Address was divided into 2 sections: an explanation of what Programmable Telecoms is, and a review of TADHack over the years.

I started the definition by listing lots of examples of Programable Telecoms: CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, open source telecom software, CPaaS enablers, Multi-Factor Authentication / Instant Authentication, Telecom APIs, WebRTC, Cloud Communications, CPaaS enabled services, omni-channel, telecom infrastructure as code, telecom service dashboards, the myriad of UIs making APIs and enablers and services useable beyond coders. Through this definition I explained the trend in the democratization of telecoms.

I then gave an architectural definition to break down the main functional components, see below. I could have added many more components within the services layer, e.g. workflow. The bias of this diagram is really on the more network / transport related parts. The base layer of the diagram explains the aggregation and firewall functions. Above that sits the application server functions, the abstraction of all those funky network protocols and APIs, and provide lots of common functions, e.g. call redirection. Then there’s a layer of value added services, and above that enablers and services. Its really more a gradual abstraction from send an SMS, through record the call and basic UC functions, to an off the shelf UC service.

The KISS definition was, “If it’s Telecom related, and its programmable / configurable its Programmable Telecoms.” Suggested reading is “The Potted history of Programmable Telecoms” and don’t forget to check out the Irreverent Acronyms at the end of the weblog.

So Programmable Telecoms exists, it’s getting democratized so many more people can use it. And its likely greater than $100B in 2021 as we look across all these markets:

• CPaaS (voice and messaging) $8B by 2021, 57% CAGR
• UCaaS estimate $33B by 2021 CAGR 11%
• SIP Trunking US $5.5B (2021), Global $11B, CAGR 14%
• CCaaS estimate $18B (2021) CAGR 25%
• A2P SMS Market estimates vary greatly from $12B to $60B with CAGR -10% to 40%. CPaaS estimates do not include legacy SMPP deals. We’re taking the lower estimate of $12B, and this may be high.
• Global Mobile Authentication (MFA) $11B, 18% CAGR
• Mobile Marketing, IoT, enterprise telecoms, collaboration, charging payments and wallets, and many more.

The legacy enterprise telecoms guys will claim, most of that revenue is mine, which is true, but they’re also offering UCaaS / CCaaS, as well as attempting to maintain legacy revenues / pricing / margin. Jerome Pascal, CEO Wazo, raised an important point that the impact of programmable telecoms is much greater. The total telecoms market is $2.2T, and the communication piece of that is $1.4T. Programmable telecoms is creating a redistribution of over $1T in revenues. We’ll be working on this positioning soon 😉

I then moved onto a review of TADHack, over the past 5 years. In this weblog you can read in more detail all TADHack has achieved. Some fo the headlines are:

• TADHack has run across over 44 countries including: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brasil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Zambia. Sorry if I forgot yours.
• And multiple cities in some of those countries, that’s over 100 cities involved in TADHack.
• We’ve had over 11,400 registrations.
• Well over 1000 pitches have been given at TADHack.
• We’ve awarded over $250k in prize money. Plus an additional $100k+ in goodies and vouchers.
• 84 sponsors have made TADHack possible. And over 150 partners running locations, including 16 Universities.
• This has created over 700 YouTube videos of pitches, with 200k+ minutes of viewing, some videos have been viewed over 5000 times.
• We’ve had over 1 million tweet impressions.
• 11 companies have been founded by teams involved in TADHack.
• We know of 46 people we’ve helped with their job search. And 100s more add TADHack to their resume and LinkedIn profile.
• 19 services have been launched hacks created at TADHack.
• And people from ages 14 to 85 have taken part!

To quote Barbara Mikulski “Each one of us can make a difference. Together we make change.” Through TADHack and TADSummit we have achieved that in the making of programmable telecoms market, its broad global adoption, and the people’s lives we’ve helped.

We then moved onto a discussion led by Mark White on how to better position what we do at TADHack and TADSummit. This was an excellent discussion, with lots of follow-up. I’ll not summarize on the TADSummit weblog until we’ve synthesized some recommendations.

I wrapped up the session with a quick review of what we have planned for 2019. Some dates for your diary are:

• TADHack-mini Orlando, 16-17 March 2019
• TADSummit Asia, KL, mid-May 2019 (details to be confirmed)
• TADHack Global, 12/13 Oct
  Adding prototype / skunkworks theme with greater business focus and cooperation with business schools and other parties
• TADSummit Americas, Chicago, 15/16 Oct
• TADSummit EMEA, mid Nov, perhaps London or Lisbon, discussing a number of formats including more of a working group format (details to be confirmed)

Best Wishes for 2019