TADHack 2025. Why does Telecoms Service Innovation feel like an Oxymoron? Because the Web won, and telecoms has not caught up!

June was the month of TADHack, we had two wonderfully diverse innovation events thanks to Telnyx and Strolid:

What was Demonstrated?

Developer tenacity: for some teams TADHack is their annual hackathon, they produce one amazing world-class hack per year, it addresses a problem important to them. Most teams worked throughout June producing world class hacks.

TADHack has a diversity of developers (I also use the term web-folk as most of them are web developers front and/or back end): mature students, undergraduates, people transitioning into development, world class developers, including dev evangelists, even a few integrators (that is open source geeks who love working on the bleeding edge of technology).

Why do ‘old-hands’ get involved in TADHack? It’s about new technologies like vCon and Telnyx AI agent. Contributing to open source projects (e.g. Matt Williams created an adapter for Azure blob storage on the vCon open source project, in addition to his hack). They show how it’s done to the new folk, its a community effort. The best evangelists help developers not just using the resources, but help their project use the resources best for their application. And last but not least, simply having fun problem solving with technology.

TADHack exists because we make using new technologies fun and rewarding, since 2014. The sponsors gain invaluable insight into making their resources the best possible for developers around the world. Documentation is critical and it takes time, years in some cases.

Being a hardcore coder is not essential to take part in TADHack. Many of the hacks used no-code. Check out Sabrina and Vincent‘s hacks, many of the Telnyx hacks were no code. Some used PSTN voice, most used WebRTC voice. The Web excels in making it easy to get something working. Camara, like OneAPI, does not.

Most of my business communications is WebRTC-related, using Zoom, for hours per day. ‘Web voice’ is quite easy today, it wasn’t in the early days. EASY is critically important and this remains the greatest weakness of the telecoms industry’s non-web standards. Using APIs in preference to no code, mobile network focused rather than IP AND mobile, the list goes on.

The Telecom Industry keeps closing the on-ramps from the web. And perversely focus on ‘standard’ or ‘Open’ APIs, and weird frameworks that make no sense to developers. The TMF and GSMA technology office lack web skills and experience. Hence the industry’s failure to launch over the decades, see last year’s Camara hackathon was mostly vendors wanting to sell their platforms to telcos. With only a few developers, like Tim Panton, who is world class and understands telecoms better than most.

Hacks Delivered

vCon TADHack, 18 hacks, across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Strolid has sponsored TADHack for 4 years. Beginning in 2022. Their resources are refined, from all that cumulative learning. $5k prize money was, distributed within days of the winners announcement. International payments are so much easier today than even 5 years ago, 10 years ago was a real pain.

Telnyx TADHack, 12 hacks across US, Africa, and Asia. Telnyx Voice AI was just launched; and remember FCC dragged Telnyx over the coals for a crook targeting the FCC that briefly used their platform as described here. This was a new product for Telnyx and a platform that had added KYC (Know Your Customer) hurdles. It was high risk, but with the KYC issues solved, developers created some amazing hacks using the Telnyx AI agent, it received excellent reviews.

What else was delivered beyond the prize money?

Internships building vCon applications, MindMaking is new this year and working with many TADHack teams building apps for the vCon store. Next year the role of the vCon store will be mainstream, with TADHack teams earning revenues.

How do people get involved in TADHack?

Word of mouth, since 2014. Yeah, old school.

Kenya had several teams join because the prize payments were so easy. That is word of mouth from last year’s participants sharing their great experiences.

Ziyad was a winner in 2023, the prize money helped with his One Center development. This is another way word of mouth encourages people to take part.

Some people scoff at being so homestyle in our approach, yet it ensures we deliver a quality experience and make a difference in people’s lives.

I’ve said this many times before, “honesty and integrity matter”. People know that is what I deliver across TADSummit (since 2013), and TADHack (since 2014).

AND most importantly, diversity of backgrounds. Not just coding skills, But also presentation, creativity, resilience, initiative, and tenacity skills. This ensures local innovations are created that matter. For the telcos in the country of TADHack participants, you’ve got amazing talent on your doorstep.

Today’s Challenges

I’ve never seen a market so hard for young people. I know many early twenty-somethings coming home after completing their 3 or 4 year degrees with no job offers, taking many part time jobs over the summer, e.g. lifeguard, coaching (swim, tennis, baseball, etc), academic tutoring, open source projects, restaurant work to earn cash and gain experience while they seek something more permanent. These are not Gen Z expecting to be served by society, these are some of the brightest minds NJ has to offer.

I’ve witnessed many dev engagement methods from giant tech companies to small telcos. Talent is everywhere, IdeaMart in Sri Lanka is a great example of country-wide engagement, including founding local startups and supporting minority groups.

Lessons include reaching people where they are, in their communities, Universities are critical. Not just software engineering courses. Documentation is critical and it takes time, years to build.

For telcos, keep management away from dev evangelists, give them space, I’ve seen impressive dev evangelists walk away from cushy jobs with telcos as management attempted to manage them based on little relevant experience, just what they saw presented at the TMF or GSMA event, sigh. Give them space, enable them to measure results and agree targets. Beyond that let them build your vibrant dev community. Retaining dev evangelists is tough, some go on to work for Google and Amazon across large regions.

Serious note

The Industry is lying to itself. Large vendors sponsor the main industry messages and they are delivered regardless of its impact on whole industry. For example: IMS failed to deliver claimed service innovations, OneAPI failed and was hidden in closet somewhere, Camara is repeating the same mistakes with the same people as OneAPI and ignoring the role of IP and mobile, 5G was grossly exaggerated, DSP (Digital Service Provider) make little sense, Digital Transformation has failed to transform just spend more money with existing vendors, Techco has only a few examples, see here.

TMForum and the GSMA lack web and developer experience / expertise and are simply vested in repeating the messages of the main vendors. Their events repeat nonsense. Last year we saw the misdirection of Axiata’s use case. Failure of OneAPI is being copied by Camara. The analysts and press appear too scared to even point this out.

Until Google took over RCS it was a litany of silliness for something that should matter intensely to the industry, remember Joyn? Today, it’s further along than it’s ever been. Yet Line, WhatsApp, WeChat, and KakaoTalk have solid regional bases. US / Canada and some parts of Europe could see RCS achieve a foothold along with the already mentioned well-established platforms. I’ve been a supporter of RCS since 2008, Dean Bubley can testify to how hard that has been. To the liars claiming I am anti-IMS see the this report that accurately predicted IMS roll-out. My issues was the service innovation claims, where again I was proven right.

AI, we’ve been covering it longer than most at TADSummit, and it’s now part of TADHack, with developers well-versed, and building great hacks using AI. TADHack is your guide to where the technology is going. And TADSummit brings together the innovators that live or die based on business success with that technology. Not large vendor marketing folks with the latest story, yet little skin in the game.

Telecoms has become an industry that robs grandma (spam and scams over the PSTN); that abuses people like Bill Peters, Puja Amin and covers it up by bare-faced lying. The industry fora must be held to account. Honesty and integrity matter.

My Personal Experience

I’ve been in telecoms since 1986, when I started University, sponsored by BT on a 4 year Masters. There was lots of training, summer projects, and a 6 month industry placement. So next year’s going to be ‘sort of’ 40 years in telecoms, still in my 50s, working on the latest technologies and a wonderful diversity of people from around the world.

I’ve worked on many globally deployed solutions, e.g. FTTH, that’s in my home, from my work in FSAN (Full Service Access Network) in the ’90s. I’ve founded companies at the bleeding edge, e.g. Telecom APIs. Helped companies like Nexmo, Camiant, Tropo in what has become programmable telecoms. I refuse to use the acronym CPaaS as those organizations are responsible for massive consumer abuse (the pollution of PSTN messaging and calling). And this year I am helping Telnyx and Strolid build their global communities; along with many small companies achieve business success through doing what is right for their customers, not following an ill-informed herd by people who do not understand the web.

The industry has changed massively. Tata Communications sent people to my home on a Saturday evening, as part of what Judge Colleen McMahon described as lawless litigation. Their objective, intimidate my family and I. Everything I’ve shared on my blogs is backed by public documents. Yet there are corrupt individuals that claim I am lying. Karma will likely settle their lies, as I know I am right, and I am fighting to protect telecom customers around the world, while fostering innovation.

I wish there was more support from the industry, but the GSMA technology office is broken on topics related to the web. TMForum is similarly wrong. There are others like the MEF and CPaaSaa failing the industry on critical topics. I could walk away and let the industry continue its downward spiral but what I do makes a difference, TADHack brings me joy. TADSummit delivers honesty and integrity, which is in short supply in the industry. https://blog.tadsummit.com/2025/02/28/tadsummit-2025-online-conference-agenda/. Maybe this will all dwindle away as truth becomes less relevant, only the loudest baby billionaire voice in the room matters. The CEOs of every telco should care about a future dominated by old-boys’ networks that lack web experience. The web has won for service innovation, the mobile industry needs to adapt.

What TADS Delivers

TADHack has demonstrated throughout its history, diversity matters, innovation is everywhere, and local innovation is more important today than it ever was. We’re fans of what Tony Jamous has achieved with Oyster. He was one of the first TADHack sponsors in 2014.

Diversity is critical to cybersecurity. Telecoms have a habit of “Talking amongst themselves” between the old-boys networks. In telecom, ideas are often nurtured within the industry, rarely in sync with those who are supposed to use them. At TADSummit we bring diversity to the cyber security discussion.

We’re focused on local innovation, creating vCon and Voice AI experts around the world. At Telnyx TADHack having Swahili used by a native speaker in a hack was so TADHack!

At TADSummit we represent innovators, those that live or die on technology success. Telcos need to listen much more intently to their hard won experiences. The nonsense from GSMA, TMForum, and all the other old boys networks is repeating the failures of the past. Telecoms must break free from the old-boys clubs misleading the industry.

What TADS delivers is not revolutionary, but one that creates success we can all share.

Using a Google AI quote, “Old boy networks, by prioritizing relationships over merit, can undermine the foundations of a healthy and productive ecosystem, ultimately destroying value.”