Podcast Directory

In this podcast we review some of Robert Vis’ insights from the podcast we did last week, and introduce ‘vCon Vinne’.

We kick off with how Johnny was beaten up with patents after The Vis stated, Patents are for the weak. He looks in a bad way.

Johnny has a new nickname for the CEO of STROLID, “vCon Vinnie,” he’s investing in vCon and providing its first vertical application. He has a critical role in making vCon happen.

Over the next couple of months there are quite a few events including vCon. The annual TADSummit and TADHack which includes vCon since its inception. We worked with Thomas and several thought leaders in conversation intelligence on the first vCon white paper back in 2022.

It’s exciting to see the vCon momentum growing fast. TADSummit continues to be where programmable communications innovations receive their first exposure.

The first short is “Google, Apple and RCS will be the end of the SMS industry” Robert makes the point that the legacy SMS aggregation industry will shift to one dominated by Apple and Google overnight. And in that shift TCR and many of the currently dominant SMS brands will no longer existing. The timing of that shift depends on many factors, what Apple does with RBS (Rich Business Messaging), how brands react, pricing, how consumers react, and how scams take advantage of RBS.

Johnny reviews the sales process TCR is going through to private equity investors. How the TCR deck misrepresents its origins, for example CTIA awarded the contract to iConectiv. However, AT&T had a consulting contract with BUC Mobile, and once it adopted that, the other carriers followed suit. As explained in the Messaging Monopolies.

Johnny highlights the future is: vCon, Bird, carriers taking control of messaging as explained in the Truth in A2P Messaging, and TADSummit which shares the truth.

Next short is, SMS Firewall = Money Laundering. As The Vis says, “It’s the biggest corruption in the world.” There is broad agreement from the industry on this point. Unfortunately, lots of dodgy companies got into SMS firewalls.

Here is a link on Mobile Ecosystem Forum member VOX SOLUTIONS AIT (Artificially Inflated Traffic) activities.

Vox Solutions is a signatory of the MEF Business SMS Code of Conduct. Clearly the MEF’s code of conduct has no teeth, as signatories can apparently flout the code of conduct.

Truth in A2P Messaging shows how the AIT problem can be solved. However, Johnny has maintained it will not be stopped. And I’m growing increasingly disillusioned that the MEF will never do what is right for carriers, consumers, businesses, and brands; only its sponsors.

Next short was “The hard but morally right decision to stop automatic onboarding.” This is critical to stopping spam, yet many aggregators sill allow automatic onboard of synthetic identities as it generates revenue, and spams Grandma. This is another example of how MEF acts for its sponsors, not carriers, consumers, and businesses, by aiding spam crapifying the PSTN through turning a blind eye.

The next short was for Johnny, “The really hard thing is to disrupt your own business, disbelieve your beliefs.” You can see Johnny sobbing after that one, were Tyntec moved from being a gold standard in the industry, to yet another SMS aggregator.

The conversation moved back to how Twilio invested in Syniverse and Zipwhip to make money from spamming. And finally T-Mobile had enough of the spam and moved away from Syniverse / Twilio to Infobip. Now, Infobip was a SMS Firewall provider, but its IPO preparations have encouraged it to start to move away from that part of the business. Though its part the Camara mess.

This short is funny on all Sinch’s login screens, “Sinch integration, and the big consolidation.” Robert’s view is consolidation will happen, and he’s not going to be part of that, full stop! In that broad consolidation, regulation is likely to raise its head as the Messaging Monopolies become one or two big global conglomerates.

Sparkpost is a critical part of Bird’s current and future business. Its the largest B2B email company. It gives reach (most Fortune 5000 companies) and integration with many enterprise processes, particularly linked to websites. It is one of the reasons Bird’s CRM focus is scaling so fast. “Why SparkPost Matters“

Last but not least is the short, “Highest EBITDA in the industry?” Robert shared impressive numbers. He’s re-engineered his business, realizing the end game is coming to SMS, and building a new era of CRM, using applications as the integration layer.

Here’s the full 90 minute video, it’s well worth your time..

“Don’t speak against the echo chamber” is a philosophy of cowards, and its destroying our industry. In the post, “The Problem with some industry fora” I review some of the problems.

hSenid Mobile is the force behind ideamart, mspace, and BDapps. Ideamart was launched in 2013, they created a country-wide innovation ecosystem. Contributing 10-15% of carrier revenues through customer / developer created applications. It’s an amazing success, and promoted at TADSummit in 2014.

Why haven’t they deployed more broadly given this success? The answer is OneAPI, most carriers follow the GSMA party line. Many industry bodies, e.g. TMF (TeleManagement Forum) and brand name consultancies endorsed OneAPI. They caused most of the industry to miss a 10-15% revenue bump. You’d think someone would be held accountable?

Podcast 90: TADSummit Innovators, Dinesh Saparamadu, hSenid Mobile, reviews their success in more detail. Idea Apps are by far the more popular method in Ideamart. There’s so much wrapped around ideamart, including country-wide engagement across developer and innovator communities, internet centers, universities, schools, groups empowering underrepresented segments of society, and so much more. Fraud management and governance are inherent in the platform, and actively managed. Easy is key for people to create locally relevant apps.

Google / Apple have their app stores, yet there remains lots of opportunity for building locally focused apps.

The current Camara BS (reincarnation of OneAPI) does not compare to what ideamart, mspace, and BDapps deliver to their countries. Last year Unifonic explained their country by country focus at TADSummit, and we saw this year Deutsche Telekom win VirtualQ away from Twilio through taking a country focus. Note this win had nothing to do with Ericsson / Vonage, rather Signalwire. TADSummit is where you’ll meet successful innovations before they are contributing 10-15% of telcos revenue.

TADSummit has presented successes throughout its decade+ history. TADSummit (22-23 Oct) is the only place to meet real innovators. Ignoring TADSummit will ensure your decline, look at OneAPI and its awful reincarnation Camara.

SMS is in decline as fraud goes unchecked thanks to MEF covering up its sponsors’ misbehaviors, as mentioned by Robert Vis. We’ll do a podcast on the net negative contributions of industry fora soon. Industry fora must be held accountable for their BS. Telecoms no longer has the fat on the bones to tolerate such incompetence.