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We kicked off with a summary of the CTIA meeting in DC last week. It looks like the US SMS industry has been given a chance to prove they can solve the SMS spam problem, before regulation is imposed. This information is provided from a number of sources who attended the meeting in person.

The corner piece of that chance is the CTIA working with YouMail, as YouMail has the best data. The Attorney Generals from most states are unhappy with the current situation. In senate hearings you can see how frustrated Senator Tester (Montana) is with comments (1:15:00) in the video of the hearing, while praising YouMail’s efforts. It looks like YouMail has become a hot property, as Johnny highlighted in Podcast 50: TADSummit Innovators, Alex Quilici. Though for different reasons.

Johnny raised an interesting theory. Brien Jones-Lantzy (Sinch and board member of REACH), The Czar (Eric J Troutman, President of REACH), and #GMoney (Robert Gerstmann, Sinch and chairman of MEF), may have agreed a deal to remove Dario Betti. You can read the mud slinging Robert did at Puja and Eric, while Sinch remains on the board of REACH? The theory is why has Sinch remained on the REACH board given what #GMoney said, there must be something going on? What say you The Czar?

I posted on yet another email sent out to CSPs (Campaign Service Providers) from Tata Communications / Kaleyra. The US is not a level playing field for CSPs, they are struggling, revenues are down in messaging (not just volumes, revenues). Tata Communications / Kaleyra, the owner of TCR, appears to be using the data contained within TCR for their business benefit. Because there is no sanction for doing this, they appear to act with impunity. Regulation is required, as even introducing competition for the TCR will not change this issue.

A reminder on the T-Mobile quote from the GTC report about the ownership issue with the TCR:

“Regardless of data protection, there was a commitment to get out of the messaging space to keep TCR proposition ‘clean’.
A relationship meant to be based on trust but ‘built on a lie’.”

GTC Report Slide 23

We briefly reviewed Twilio, their chief legal officer Dana Wagner saw his pay soar to meteoric heights in 2022, boosted by a $25.6 million stock award. But his compensation fell back to Earth last year, according to the Twilio’s recent proxy filing.

Wagner joined Twilio from Impossible Foods in late 2021. His 2022 pay included a $600,000 salary and the $25.6 million award, which included a one-time hiring grant of $12.8 million doled out in January 2022. The compensation package made Wagner the third highest-paid US legal chief in 2022, behind only Zoom’s Aparna Bawa and Apple’s Kate Adams. That appears a little inflated, Apple’s market cap is $2570B, while Twilio’s is $10.7B.

Johnny’s going to review soon how Twilio employees can fight back to rescue Twilio from its current situation.

We’re planning a TADSummit and TADHack event later this year. More information coming soon on what will be a revolutionary event in programmable communications. This will connect innovators to money, we’ve been doing that all this year. The event will share truths to help all businesses succeed, and highlight where the future of the industry is already happening. Practitioners sharing insights, honest analysis, an event to break free from the book clubs, laundromats, and catering holes plaguing our industry.