MEF Quarterly 2022 - Issue 8

JANUARY 2023 | ISSUE NO. 08 

NEW THREATS TO 

OMNICHANNEL: 

2022 in Review 

with Simeon Coney 

MEF EVENTS 

MEF IN 

BARCELONA 

GLOBAL FORUM, CLUB MEF, 

MEF LOUNGE, MEFFYS & 

FUTURE OF MOBILE SUMMIT 

FROM THE LAST 

QUARTER: 

MEF MEET UP, ROUNDTABLE, 

MEF CONNETS & MORE

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OUR BLOG IS ALSO AVAILABLE 

ON OUR WEBSITE: 

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C N T E N T S 

4 - A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO 

6 - MEMBER UPDATE 

8 - NEW MEMBERS 

9 - EVENTS 

10 - MEF MEET-UP & ROUNDTABLE 

SOUTH AFRICA 

13 - MEF MEET-UP LONDON 

15 - MEF CONNECTS OMNICHANNEL 

2022 

17 - MEF CONNECTS OMNICHANNEL ON 

DEMAND 

25 - MEF IN BARCELONA 

30 - NEXT EVENTS - 2023 

31 - MEF WEBINAR 

34 - MEF WORKING GROUPS 

43 - INSIGHTS 

44 - MEF REPORTS 

46 - ARTIFICIALLY INFLATED TRAFFIC – 

THE LATEST MENACE IN SMS 

48 - THE FUTURE IS HERE: PUTTING 

PEOPLE IN CONTROL OF THEIR IDENTITY 

WITH SELF-SOVEREIGN IDENTITY 

55 - REGULATION OF 

CRYPTOCURRENCIES ADVANCES IN 

BRAZIL 

57 - DOES RCS NEED APPLE? 

59 - 5 MINUTES WITH… TELEWHALE 

61 - ERICSSON SELLS ITS IOT DIVISION 

TO AERIS 

63 - 5 TELCO TECHNOLOGY TRENDS 

FOR 2023 

24 

NEW THREATS TO OMNICHANNEL: 

2022 IN REVIEW 

Simeon Coney 

ENEA AdaptiveMobile 

65 - OFCOM CLI CHANGES: REGULATOR 

TACKLING SPOOFING SCAMS 

66 - INITIATIVES 

67 - ANTI-SMISHING – SMS PROTECTION 

REGISTRIES 

68 - ABOUT MEF

A MESSAGE FROM THE 

CEO 

At the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, we closed 

2022 with a remarkable increase in 

members, our flagship conference MEF 

CONNECTS Omnichannel and our Annual 

General Meeting. There is success in the air at 

MEF. And 2023 seems to follow the trend. 

We started in January with a successful 

event in Kuala Lumpur for content and 

payments, and the MEF line-up for MWC 

Barcelona is going to be the most impressive 

in our association's history. 

It is a unique time for the mobile ecosystem 

as a whole, but we should not just celebrate. 

Let's keep our eyes open. This is the era of 

permacrisis: pandemics, economic crises, and 

wars have followed each other. The obstacles 

are unfortunately bountiful. The economic 

crisis and the rise in inflation have brought a 

reduction in investments, a drop in 

advertising and redundancy in major tech 

companies. What does that mean for our 

members? 

BE READY. Understand what is happening: 

MEF is the right place to review the trends in 

the market and understand them. We pride 

ourselves on being a major gauge of 

consumer and enterprise sentiment. Our 

survey for the smartphone user is going 

to cover 13 countries (3 more than last 

year). We are also finalising our new 

enterprise survey too. Get involved and 

get your insight! 

BE EFFICIENT. During our AGM we 

received some great feedback: MEF is the 

"best bang for your buck". I enjoyed 

hearing that immensely and I will repeat it 

in future. Our events are free for 

members and focus on key markets and 

people. Our reports are essential reading 

for the market. And if you need to build 

visibility we are the best amplifier of 

members' messages. Make the most of 

MEF. 

BE ACTIVE. We highlighted some key 

areas where the industry needs to sort 

things out. Artificial Account/Traffic 

Generation is a ticking bomb for the 

industry. Our message is clear: let's clean 

things up before we destroy a market. 

Authentication remains central to 

security, advertising, and communication. 

It is a great time for the industry, but we 

had better use this time correctly. Join 

the debate! 

DARIO BETTI 

CEO 

M O B I L E E C O S Y S T E M F O R U M | 4

JOIN MEF 

ACCELERATING YOUR 

MOBILE OPPORTUNITIES 

M O B I L E E C O S Y S T E M F O R U M | 5

M E M B E R S 

M E M B E R S | 6

MEMBERS UPDATE 

Dear Members, 

Hope you are keeping well. Below is the final 

monthly update of the year and we are 

excited to welcome so many new members 

and also share further plans surrounding 

MWC Barcelona. 

At the request of its Members, MEF is 

offering three opportunities to be on a main 

stage as thought leaders in Barcelona in 

February 2023. 

We return with The Future of Mobile Summit 

at the Fira on Tuesday 28th February (15:00- 

19:00) - a 150 pax theatre, at the prestigious 

MWC 2023 event. The Sessions will include: 

Headliner Keynote 

Future of Messaging 

Future of Identity 

Quick Fire Brand 

Connectivity/Roaming 

Future of Gaming/Content 

Future Talent 

The second opportunity is to register your 

interest as a panel speaker [non-sponsored] 

in one or more of the Sessions listed above. 

Please note that this will be contingent on the 

Sponsors' agreement and MEF editorial. 

Please state which Session is of interest and 

submit your proposal here. 

The third opportunity is to curate your 

thought-leadership agenda and invite 

your target audience as part of the MEF 

Global Forum at Casa Llotja: Sunday 26th 

Feb and Monday 27th Feb. You could 

have your own Session within the Global 

Forum Programme in the stunning venue 

that will be home to MEF events on 

Sunday and Monday. Please get in touch 

if you are interested. 

In other updates: 

Nominations for Meffys 2023 are now 

open – submit your entry HERE 

MEF was in Kuala Lumpur on the 11th 

and 12th of January hosting two 

events in partnership with Sam Media: 

MEF Meet-Up Kuala Lumpur ; MEF 

CONNECTS Mobile Content & 

Payments 

MEF CONNECTS Omnichannel 

sessions are available on demand: 

MEF CONNECTS Omnichannel 2022 

AGM 2022 slides and meeting 

recording is available on our website: 

MEF AGM 2022 

Finally, we would like to take the 

opportunity to thank you all for your 

active engagement, contributions, and 

support in 2022. 

EWA PEPPITT 

GLOBAL MEMBER MANAGER 

M E M B E R S | 7

NEW MEMBERS 

A warm welcome to the members who have recently joined MEF. 

You can see their profiles on our website, and you will have the opportunity to 

meet them via the Working Groups and upcoming events. 

M E M B E R S | 8

E V E N T S 

E V E N T S | 9

FROM THE 

LAST QUARTER 

MEF MEET-UP & 

ROUNDTABLE SOUTH 

AFRICA 

MEF Members were gathered in Cape 

Town for AfricaCom, and for a trio of MEF 

events, including networking meetups and 

a full day of expert guest speakers and 

panels at the MEF Roundtable. 

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MEF MEET UP LONDON 

Immediately after the AGM, members and 

guests joined the last MEET UP for 2022 

to eat, drink and merrily mingle in this 

stunning setting just behind Oxford Circus 

in London. 

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MEF CONNECTS 

OMNICHANNEL 2022 

MEF Members met in London for our fully 

hybrid (face-to-face and virtual) Business 

Messaging related event for 2022 – MEF 

CONNECTS Omnichannel. Taking place at 

The Kings Fund in London, Members and 

guests gathered to review Omnichannel 

strategies, build new partnerships, identify 

new target audiences for goods and 

services, integrate new ideas and expand 

their knowledge of this fast-growing area, 

as well as meet and greet at the MEF 

Member meetups and AGM. 

All the sessions are now available 

on-demand. You can now revisit all 

the content here. 

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ON DEMAND 

DAY 1 

KEYNOTE: THE THREE PILLARS OF A 

TOP-NOTCH CUSTOMER JOURNEY 

Join our flagship event sponsor for a look into the 

history of the customer journey and how it has 

evolved in the last 10 years. You’ll be introduced to 

the three pillars critical to delivering an excellent 

customer journey – marketing, authentication and 

of course customer service – and see real-world 

examples of how these are put into action! 

Divya Ghai Wakankar, VP Enterprise Business & 

Marketing – BICS 

THE A2P SMS GENERATION GAME 

GOES ON – WHO IS GOING TO WIN? 

The unprecedented increases in international A2P 

SMS rates since the beginning of 2022 have led to 

a surge in revenues, making it even more lucrative 

for bad actors carrying out Artificial Generation 

fraud. Industry stakeholders are now seriously 

concerned this could lead to SMS becoming an 

unwanted component of Omnichannel 

communications and this panel brings together 

experts to discuss this issue, leaving no stone 

unturned. This will be a hard-hitting discussion which 

brings this dark art fully under the microscope so 

don’t miss it! 

James Williams, Director of Programmes – MEF 

Vladimir Smal, Head of Sales & Procurement, 

Global Messaging – LANCK Telecom 

Tim Biddle, Director of Operator Relations, UK & 

Ireland – Sinch 

Kevin Graham, Senior Director, Operator 

Services – Vonage 

Simon Nainkin, VP Product Partnerships, 

Clickatell 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BLOG POST 

E V E N T S | 1 7

DAY 1 

VALIDATION CHALLENGES WITH 

VOICE, MESSAGING & RCS 

Ross Flynn, Advisor – MEF 

Tim Ward, VP Number Information Services – 

XConnect 

Jason Lunn, Global Connectivity CPaaS – Cisco 

MESSAGES BY GOOGLE & RICH 

BUSINESS MESSAGING – AN 

UPDATE 

Learn about the progress RCS is making in 

delivering reliable, safe, and helpful communication 

to users and businesses 

Craig Lennon, Global Partnerships Lead – 

Google 

OMNICHANNEL MESSAGING FOR 

CLIMATE NET ZERO OBJECTIVES 

With the COP27 meeting in Egypt fresh in mind, this 

session will discuss how exactly our telecoms 

industry can deliver concrete actions to tackle the 

climate emergency – from handset recycling 

programmes to SMS alerts, and even carbon 

neutral roaming, as Swisscom will demonstrate, we’ll 

be covering the lot! This session seeks renewed 

solidarity between mobile ecosystem stakeholders 

to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement for 

people and the planet! 

Gerrit Jan Konijnenberg, Board Advisor – MEF 

John Pawluk, Senior Wholesale Roaming 

Manager – Swisscom 

Jorge Lopez, Senior Wholesale Roaming 

Manager – Swisscom 


E V E N T S | 1 8

DOES VOICE HAVE A FUTURE? 

DAY 1 

Join this panel discussion to really get to the 

bottom of where voice is today, the challenges the 

market faces and a good look into the myriad of 

new opportunities there are now for it if the 

industry collaborates to shore up its position… You 

will also get latest market data and insights on the 

most recent Juniper research “The Future of 

Monetisable Voice Services” 


Teodor Magureanu, Chief of Staff – VOX 

Solutions 

Iulian Botirlaianu, Global VP of Strategic 

Partnerships – VOX Solutions 

Sam Barker, Head of Analytics & Forecasting – 

Juniper Research 

FAKE ACCOUNTS: HOW CAN 

BRANDS AVOID THEM? 

Brands and Social Media organizations dominantly 

use A2P SMS to verify phone numbers as part of a 

new account sign-up. In recent years, Social Media 

and OTT brands are becoming infected with fake 

user accounts, which is damaging the brand 

reputation as well as inflicting spurious costs 

associated with paying for artificial A2P SMS traffic. 

The panel will discuss actions that the ecosystem 

are taking to help Brands to avoid fake accounts 

Ross Flynn, Advisor – MEF 

John Murtagh, Senior Partner Products – 

Infobip 

Allister Fraser, Digital Identity New Business 

Development – EE 

Vimal Odedra, MNO Partnership Development 

Manager – JT 

Rajiv Singla, CEO Global Messaging – Globe 

Teleservices 


E V E N T S | 1 9

DAY 1 

THE METAVERSE: A DRIVER OF 

REAL CHANGE FOR PEOPLE WITH 

DISABILITIES? 

Dr. Mike Short and Chris Lewis will build on the work 

that has been done around accessibility over the 

last decade and how the goal of everyone living and 

working in the Metaverse is a major opportunity to 

bring all formerly excluded groups into a better 

connected world. This is not a CSR, ESG or EDI issue 

but impacts everyone contributing to the role of the 

telecoms industry in the Metaverse. 

Everyone will benefit as long as we take the holistic 

view now and build the right hooks into our systems, 

devices, applications and services. Join us for this 

exciting panel by these esteemed speakers 

Chris Lewis, Founding Director – Lewis Insight 

Dr Mike Short CBE, Chief Scientific Adviser – 

Department for International Trade 

DAY 2 

IN CONVERSATION WITH 

WHATSAPP 

WhatsApp now has over 2.5 Billion Global users and 

an ever expanding range of businesses delivering 

key experiences for their customers around the 

world. In this session David & Yulia will be discussing 

why Messaging is so important to Meta, the range 

of meta channels and how they see the value 

across them. We’ll take a look at some of the latest 

launches and what they’re achieving as well as 

taking a look at what’s next for WhatsApp. 

David Creasey-Benjamin, Future Messaging 

Evangelist – Webex CPaaS Solutions 

Yulia Dakin, Business Development & 

Partnerships – WhatsApp 


E V E N T S | 2 0

MASTERING CUSTOMER- 

CENTRICITY THROUGH AN 

OMNICHANNEL APPROACH 

DAY 2 

As the needs of end-users continue to diversify, it’s 

crucial organizations deploy the right approach to 

remedy their demands. Join Infobip and learn how 

an intricate omnichannel strategy can improve 

customer experiences. Listen to practical advice 

and use cases from the real world and apply them 

to your own scenario and challenges. 

Julian Dawkins, Senior Product Marketing 

Manager – Infobip 

DIGITAL MARKETING 

COMMUNICATION TRENDS & THE 

EVOLUTION OF CUSTOMER 

BEHAVIOUR – OPPORTUNITIES & 

CHALLENGES FOR 2023 & BEYOND 

Companies and stores are out, experiences are in. 

Faceless brands and services don’t have a chance 

in today’s market given just how fast consumer 

behaviour has evolved and continues to do so. Join 

this panel to understand exactly how profound the 

implications of this are and how we as an industry 

should be interacting with today’s consumer. 


Sam Kraehenbuehl, Commercial Director – 

TeleWhale 

Deshbandhu Bansal, COO, Messaging Solutions 

– Comviva 

John Owen, CEO Europe & Americas – Route 

Mobile 

Kerstin Trikalitis, Co-Founder & CEO – Out There 

Media 


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DAY 2 

DIFFERENTIATED PRICING: IS IT THE 

EASIEST INNOVATION FOR MNOS TO 

GRAB MORE SHARE OF THE 

OMNICHANNEL? 

Driving revenue and expanding use cases for A2P 

SMS has never been more important. However, if 

A2P SMS is to continue its growth within the 

Omnichannel marketplace, a simple change in 

approach is required. MNOs need to adopt robust 

pricing strategies which empowers the enterprise 

without risk of cannibalisation. In turn MNOs will 

achieve rapid revenue growth from their traditional 

asset. In this session, Mobilesquared’s Nick Lane and 

HAUD’s Joanna Kuligowska unpick the barriers to 

adoption and investigate just how easy it is for 

MNOs to implement a differentiated pricing 

strategy 

Joanna Kuligowska, Head of Global Market 

Intelligence – HAUD 

Nick Lane, Chief Insight Analyst & Founder – 

Mobilesquared Ltd 

WHAT WILL BE THE KEY 

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN 

EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER 

JOURNEY IN 2023? 

Join industry experts for an in-depth look at how 

different departments approach customer 

engagement, coming to understand exactly how 

CPaaS is central to delivering a personalized 

communication experience at every customer 

journey touchpoint 


Divya Ghai Wakankar, VP Enterprise Business & 

Marketing – BICS 

Cristina Constandache, Chief Revenue Officer – 

Rakuten Viber 

Mauro Carobene, Chief Business Officer – 

Kaleyra 

David Fernandez Vinuales, Strategic 

Partnerships Lead, Rich Business Messaging – 

Google 


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DAY 2 

RCS ROUNDTABLE 

Infobip and industry partners discuss three winning 

strategies to enable brands to include RBM in their 

messaging mix, enabling them to capitalise on the 

reach and rich opportunities it brings. 

Michael Power, Founder – Engage Mobile 

Kim Johal, Senior Sales Manager – Infobip 

Tim Atkinson, RCS Business Development 

Manager – Google 

Catherine Maguire, Product Manager – BT 

David Boddington, Senior Product Manager – 

Infobip 

Claudine Bell, Partner Business Manager, 

Commerce Wholesale – Virgin Media O2 

CONSUMER PROTECTION: THE 

NECESSITY OF AN INTEGRATED 

LIFECYCLE APPROACH 

Etched into the bedrock of the Business Messaging 

world is trust. Without that the industry has nothing. 

Everybody is aware of the need for cybersecurity 

but the reality is that no matter what you do, at 

some point your network is going to be breached. 

So how do you go about limiting the amount of 

harm to your business should (when?) a bad actor 

arrives on the scene. The name of the game is 

speed and communication across all stakeholders. 

Providing a very fitting topic to close the event with, 

data vetting experts Aegis Mobile will be bringing 

experts from across the ecosystem to review the 

whole lifecycle – from onboarding and vetting to 

filtering messages that have been flagged up as 

spam organisations the world over need to be on 

top of everything at all times. Join us to find out 

how this can be made a reality for all. 


John Bruner, CEO – Aegis Mobile 

Catherine Maguire, Product Manager – BT 

Carlos Villanueva, Co-Founder & Chief Revenue 

Officer – Enabld 

Anurag Aggarwal, VP – Partnerships & Alliances 

– Tanla Platforms 


E V E N T S | 2 3

NEW THREATS TO OMNICHANNEL: 

2022 IN REVIEW 

The holy grail of enterprise communications is to 

deploy solutions bringing together a variety of 

channels with which clients are already most 

comfortable with, and which enable genuine 

conversational capabilities between both parties. 

Omnichannel is the bedrock of this. The Business 

Messaging market is on a rapid growth trajectory 

but wherever money flows to, bad actors will be in 

hot pursuit. Threat vectors are increasing and the 

ingenuity and prevalence of these bad actors 

should not be ignored. Join a panel of anti-fraud 

experts to understand exactly what has been going 

on this year and see what the future of 

Omnichannel might hold through 2023 and 

beyond… 

SIMEON CONEY 

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER 

ENEA ADAPTIVEMOBILE SECURITY 

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COMING UP NEXT… 

M E F I N 

B A R C E L O N A 

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MEF Global Forum 

The global industry bodies represented under one roof. A mixture of 

conferences, live streaming and networking where you drive the thought 

leadership. Ample exhibition, networking and hospitality space included. 

Widen your audience, broadcast your content, set your agenda. Sunday & 

Monday. Broad Agenda themes include: SMS Forum, Rich Messaging Forum, 

Anti-Fraud Forum, Identity Forum, Mobile Edge Forum, Regulation Forum, 

Inclusion Forum to name but a few. 

REGISTER HERE 

Club MEF 

Exclusive business lounge open for members and their guests. Open tables 

and comfortable sofas for discussions and informal meetings. In the entry 

to the Golden Hall we will have an expo area and provide hospitality 

throughout the day. 

REGISTER HERE 

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MEF Lounge 

On Sunday 26th February at 17:30 come to the exquisite MEF LOUNGE at 

Casa Llotja de Mar, Barcelona to network and have fun on the stunning 

heated patio courtyard. Over four hours you and your special guests can 

drink, eat and soak up the wonderful entertainment in this amazing 14th 

century location, which stands on the seafront in the historic centre of the 

city. The venue provides something for everyone, including quieter places 

(the Chillout Zone) for one-on-one meetings. You can impress your guests, 

or come alone and make new connections. Make sure the MEF LOUNGE is 

your first stop -you won’t want to be anywhere else! 

REGISTER HERE 

SUPPORTED BY 

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MEFFYS Awards 2023 

At the request of the MEF Members the MEFFYS in 2023 will be more 

Grand, have more Glitz and definitely more Glamour as it takes elements of 

the past and introduces the new. We return to Barcelona, in a new, grand 

location, Casa Llotja de Mar for the 18th Annual MEFFYS AWARDS with the 

winners of 7 categories announced LIVE on the night. 

18:30 Red Carpet Arrivals, Press, Photos 

18:45 Welcome Drinks and tapas in heated courtyard 

19:45 MEFFYS Award Ceremony on stage 

20:45 Full Food and Drinks Service open 

21:00 Music, Dancing and Black Tie Ball until late 

REGISTER HERE 

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MEF FUTURE OF MOBILE SUMMIT 

At the request of its Members MEF is offering opportunities to be on a main 

stage as thought leaders in Barcelona in February 2023. 

We return with The Future of Mobile Summit at the Fira on Tuesday 28th 

February (15:00-19:00) - a 150 pax theatre, at the prestigious MWC event. 

We invite all members to take a prominent position in The Future of Mobile 

Summit as a Session Sponsor. 

We will assist with organisation, promote and market, create content for 

your channels, and help curate your thought-leadership agenda. As a 

Sponsor your brand will headline on the main stage for your Session. 

We offer you an open and fair chance to headline your Session as a 

Sponsor. Our MEF team are available to moderate, subject to their areas of 

expertise. We can also assist with panel speakers, subject to your approval. 

As you know we’re not a commercially driven enterprise – we listen to our 

members and try to provide the opportunities that they deem of value. 

However, there is a high cost to MEF to provide a main stage opportunity at 

MWC. 

We are open for all members to secure their Sponsorship Sessions within 

The Future of Mobile Summit – this will be on a first come basis. Click here 

to express interest. 

The second opportunity is to register your interest as a panel speaker [nonsponsored] 

in one or more of the Session themes listed above. Please note 

that this will be contingent on the Sponsors’ agreement, but we would be 

happy to initiate. 

We are open for all members to express their interest as a panel Speaker 

as part of a Sponsored Session within The Future of Mobile Summit – 

Please state which Session is of interest. Click here to express interest. 

REGISTER HERE 

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ON DEMAND 

W E B I N A R | 3 1

ON DEMAND 

FRAUD: THE NEXT GENERATION 

– THE INDUSTRY FIGHTS BACK 


IS IT RUDE TO ASK YOUR AGE? 

ACTUALLY NO. IT IS A LEGAL 

REQUIREMENT 


MEF CONNECTS USA REVIEW – 

TRENDS IN NORTH AMERICAN 

BUSINESS MESSAGING 


MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE 

BETWEEN SMART PHONES AND 

FEATURE PHONES 


HOW TO DRIVE BRAND 

AWARENESS, BRAND LOYALTY & 

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN THE 

DIGITAL AGE 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE BLOG POST

COMING UP NEXT… 

W E B I N A R | 3 3

W O R K I N G G R O U P S | 3 4

As we closed 2022, a positive business 

sentiment pervaded companies in digital and 

IoT. We are slowly coming down from the high 

of 2021 and the post Covid growth effect 

which influenced many IoT implementations 

especially around IoT. The momentum is 

continuing in key industries including industrial, 

enterprise and energy sectors and 

companies in offering connectivity, software 

and general cloud services are feeling 

optimistic for the future of the industry. The 

overall growth of connected devices 

accelerated this year and so did the available 

investment for IoT companies. All these 

despite the shortage in key talent, the war in 

Ukraine and the overall inflation. 

One of the areas we see both investment 

and growth is the satellite IoT and in our last 

working group Telemaco Melia the MD of 

Ecostar Mobile shared key insights about the 

industry and how satellite and LoRaWan 

make a good connectivity combination. If you 

missed that session, you can watch the 

recording here. 

Have you had a chance to download and 

read our last IoT report “Best Practice in IoT 

Connectivity”? We would love to hear your 

thoughts. If you haven’t yet, you can get your 

copy here. 

Join our working group and immerse yourself 

in the world of connected products and 

solutions. To join us message Ewa or Nassia. 


Quite a bit happened in the world of personal 

data and identity last quarter, both at the 

MEF and the industry. First off, we released 

the 'MEF Market Review: Personal Data and 

Identity "Meeting of the Waters”’ market 

assessment report. We also held a webinar 

"Is it rude to ask your age? Actually no. It is a 

legal requirement. October 20, 2022 MEF 

Webinar” with Iain Corby of the Age 

Verification Providers Association, Dr. Rachel 

O’Connell of TrustElevate, Breno Pilar of 

IPification, and Keith Mabbitt of OneID, 

moderated by the MEF’s Michael Becker. 

On the industry new front, there has been 

much movement. Open Future World held a 

fantastic two-day congress, OpenX, 

investigating the opportunities for crosssector 

data exchange. Officials and industry 

leaders from around the world had a key eye 

on growth and discussed strategy, use cases, 

technology, and regulation. The BBC, in an 

industry first, introduced a personal 

information system, the BBC Taster, which is 

built on Sir Tim Berners-Lee vision for the 

democratization of personal data (see 

Inrupt). The UK Gov’t’s Department of 

Business, Energy, Industry and Strategy 

(BEIS) and the Department of Digital, Culture, 

Media & Sports (DCMS) are engaging in 

several initiatives around Smart Data and 

infomediaries. The World Data Exchange 

acquired Digi.me., a leading personal 

information management solutions 

infrastructure. CISA provided anti-phishing 

resistant with multi-factor authentication 

guidelines. The Korean carriers have 

announced support for digitizing Korea 

residents' national IDs with PASS. The EU has 

committed to having its digital ID regulation in 

place by 2024. Samsung has announced a 

private data and identity blockchain “Knox 

Matrix.” LastPass is the first password 

manager capable of being used in the 

metaverse. And, global identity leaders 

have converted in The Bay Area to 

discuss all things identity at the Internet 

Identity Workshop. 

What’s next for the PD&I Workshop 

group? We’ll be finalizing a white paper 

based on the topics discussed in the 

webinar. We are kicking off the MEF 9th 

Global Trust Study. We are organizing a 

speaker for the MEF’s presence at the 

Mobile World Congress in February. And, 

we have a call-for-advisor for the MEF 

CONNECTS Personal Data & Identity 

event, which will be held May 25, 2023, in 

London. If you have anything to contribute 

on this topic, please reach out to Michael 

Becker. 


October was a busy month, with the wellattended 

Capacity Europe event which took 

place in London. Attendance levels were back 

to the prior Covid times and the ability to 

meet again was very welcome. 

MEF attended the event and could notice 

that the main topics brought up this year on 

its calendar of events are at the core of the 

discussions in the industry. Of primary 

importance we can name a few: Voice 

remains a key topic (OBR, Int'l fraud) flash 

calling and its impacts on wholesale, 5G 

roaming deployments and potential, 

automation across the industry thanks to 

blockchain technology, and IoT. Two other 

topics are increasingly being discussed: 

CPaaS and omnichannel strategies. 

The MEF team is working on bringing more 

wholesale visibility and opportunities to its 

members in 2023. Stay tuned for more 

information on face-to-face and online 

events in the year to come, and a stronger 

wholesale representation during traditionally 

well attended events by MEF. 

The November wholesale call focused on IoT. 

On this occasion, we deep dived in a MEF IoT 

survey and Nassia, our MEF IoT expert, joined 

the call and presented us the key findings 

and concepts for operators and wholesalers, 

including IoT wholesale customer 

expectations and what this means for 

carriers and wholesale providers in the IoT 

business. We tackled best practices and 

discussed the state of IoT deployment, 

impact on business models and use cases 

during our call. 

If you are interested in other wholesale 

specific topics and would like MEF to provide 

some insights and discuss these, please 

contact Suzy Menneret. 


Market Development 

RCS Market Development – the goals 

of the group are to develop a 

coherent framework for 

Verification/Security for RCS/Best 

Practices, models for federated 

sender ID VA, monitor and support 

the development of RCS in the 

industry, and provide an up-to-date 

view on the progress of RCS. The core 

group work of creating a clear 

Security/Verification Framework 

continues by members, and members 

are continuing to build a library of real 

life use cases. The topic of RCS was 

addressed in the RCS roundtable at 

the MEF CONNECTS Omnichannel 

event and indeed was covered across 

multiple other sessions. 

RCS Commercial Models – a 

document summarising all the work of 

the group to date has been created 

and was published on November 9th. 

The material is freely available for all 

to download right here. The group 

looked at: 1. The conversational nature 

of RCS. 2. Session definition 

parameters. 3. Session flow 

examples. 4. Commercial simulations 

for different models. 

A2P Commercial Models International 

Businesses – the group is the perfect 

forum in which to discuss the issue 

from a global perspective. Discussion 

is always robust and the information 

shared by members is impactful to 

say the least. The topic of 

internationally originated A2P SMS 

comes up the most. Other topics 

include definitions and MNO Terms & 

Conditions There is an ongoing survey out 

there so if you haven’t already had your 

say, it’s not too late - we’d appreciate 

your input right here: 

https://bit.ly/3zQCDzw 

Fraud & Security 

Future of Messaging Fraud & 

Revenue Assurance. Given the 

interest MEF members had in A2P 

Voice Flash Calling and the fact 

there was so little awareness of it 

across the industry, members 

have worked together on a 

fantastic educational piece 

detailing exactly what it is and the 

challenges and opportunities it 

offers. The A2P Flash sub-group’s 

main work has concluded and the 

document has been published. 

Downloads of it have been strong, 

in fact it's one of the fastest 

downloaded MEF white papers in 

MEF history! The issues of both 

Artificial Traffic Generation and 

Artificial Traffic Inflation continue 

to be mentioned and the issue is 

becoming even more prominent. 

Work around securing the SMS 

channel and monetising A2P SMS 

for MNOs is a recurring, ongoing 

theme. Contact James for more 

information about this group. 

Version 2.0 of the Business SMS 

Code of Conduct was published on 

14th December 2020 - see here. 

Contact James for more details if 

you need them and are 

contemplating signing your 


company up to the code, joining the 

now 44 MEF members that have 

already done so. More members 

continue to sign up to the code which 

is excellent but a lot more needs to be 

done here to encourage participation. 

Members of the Fraud & Revenue 

Assurance group expressed their 

desire to start work on a version 3.0 

of it early 2023. 

The Fraud Framework was reframed 

to focus on definitions only and 

separate deliverables, creating v.3.0. 

It’s a great resource, detailing the 14 

known types of SMS fraud. This will be 

modified and a v.4 created to take 

into account a new 15th type of SMS 

fraud identified. 

All FoM members are encouraged to 

sign the Code of Conduct if they feel 

they are able to. Remember there is 

no cost for MEF members. Sign-up 

and ongoing administration of the 

scheme is free for all subscribing full 

members 

Fraud Framework Mitigation work is 

ongoing by a small sub-group of 

members who are working on a 

specific mitigation document. We are 

hoping to have this completed in the 

coming months. 

South Africa 

The project is designed to bring 

together SABRIC (banking 

association), MNOs, MEF members 

and other trade association in South 

Africa to combat the scourge of fraud 

driven by SMS in particular. SABRIC 

had a protracted reorganisation the 

back end of 2021 but now their 

situation is clear. SABRIC provided a 

new point of contact to MEF who has 

been most helpful and until now the 

only sticking point had been COMRIC, 

the organisation bringing all the 

operators in South Africa together. 

They have a new CEO who MEF is now 

in contact with so hopefully this will 

improve the situation. MEF’s 

recent events at AfricaCom last 

year (November 7th and 8th) 

should hopefully prove to be a 

great catalyst for restarting this 

important work. We are looking to 

restart this group early 2023 now. 

Contact James for more 

information. 


Members collaborated through 2021 to achieve the common goal of ensuring the 

market understands both the fantastic benefits of DCB as a Payments channel and 

potential fraud areas; e.g. collating great use cases in a ‘cookbook’ or ‘recipe card’ type 

format. This project, breaking down and disseminating the comprehensive DCB Fraud 

Framework content in ways which would allow the biggest audience possible to benefit, 

has come to a natural end now. Thanks to so many members for their video, webinar, 

social media posts, infographics and other contributions! 

Members simplified the mission of the group in 2022 to: ‘Promote Adoption of DCB As 

a Trusted Payment Method’ 

Attention in 2022 was on what happens post-subscription, post-payment. Customer 

support and best practice on how to manage (for example) disputes is an important 

issue and the group will look into this important issue and work on it – as well as of 

course continuing the overriding mission of educating the whole market that DCB is a 

great Payments channel! 

35 MEF member companies came together to found this group – a clear sign there is a 

LOT of interest in the area! 

The project is principally being run by our new partner in industry practice for this area, 

Narayan Jaesingh. Ross Flynn is assisting Narayan. Narayan can be contacted here 

The mission of this group is: ‘To Become the Industry Voice on How to Better Serve 

Customers Through Personalisation Whilst Protecting Consumer Trust in the Digital Era’ 

If you would like to join this working group, then please email both Ewa and Ross 

On January 11th & 12th we had a Meet-Up & Roundtable in Kuala Lumpur which 

focussed almost entirely on Advertising & Content! 

At a recent meeting we heard from the CEO of Clipfeed, Michael Whelan! Clipfeed are a 

gaming and esports entertainment provider. 


UPCOMING WORKING GROUP MEETINGS 



I N S I G H T S 

I N S I G H T S | 4 3

MEF REPORTS 

Here is a selection of MEF’s latest reports 

THE METAVERSE 

In a previous report we addressed the 

market for People With Disabilities (PWD) 

alongside their requirements and the role 

that technology can play in bringing them 

into the digital economy. 

In any given market we have a very 

significant proportion of potential 

customers not considered as 

‘mainstream’ and for whom the services 

need to be rendered in a different way. 

This report takes a new perspective on 

the subject. It looks at how channels of 

communication can be used to improve 

the potential for these excluded groups to 

join the digital marketplace, hence 

providing new revenue opportunities for 

the industry as well as bringing the 

societal benefit of having everyone 

connected. 

ENTERPRISE IOT 2022 

The 2022 Internet of Things (IoT) 

Market Report is a survey of global 

enterprises with a goal to better 

understand how organizations are 

using, or plan to use, the Internet of 

Things (IoT), and to identify the key 

challenges, priorities, and 

opportunities. 

Senior executives from 270 

organizations were surveyed. The 

organizations, ranging from 250 

employees to large undertakings 

across nine key global markets, 

including Brazil, France, Spain, 

Germany, UK, South Africa, Indonesia, 

India and USA. We covered a range of 

core IoT sectors including Automotive 

Manufacture, Transportation, Storage, 

Logistics, Utilities, Healthcare, 

Manufacturing, Retail and Agriculture. 

I N S I G H T S | 4 4

RCS CHARGING MODELS 

A2P FLASH CALLING 

OPPORTUNITY OR 

THREAT? 

MEF MARKET REVIEW: 

PERSONAL DATA AND 

IDENTITY 

BEST PRACTICE IN IOT 

CONNECTIVITY 

MEF MARKET REVIEW - 

MOBILE CONTENT AND 

ADS 

CONSUMER SURVEY 

MOBILE PAYMENTS 2022

Artificially Inflated Traffic – The Latest 

Menace in SMS 

Managing Partner and CEO of enterprise 

messaging specialists Messente, Uku Tomikas 

here discusses the growing issue of ‘artificially 

inflated traffic’ (AIT) with regards to SMS, 

explaining exactly what it is and why it is such 

a pernicious threat to the ecosystem. 

I’ve been on about AIT for quite some time 

now – sharing content on social media, 

advising clients and talking with peers at 

events, even joining panels. Yet it seems the 

more we talk about it, the bigger the 

revelations get. 

At WWC in Madrid this year I learned that not 

only are big players and smaller players doing 

it, but that large enterprises use it to boost 

their user count – makes sense for them to 

spend peanuts on showing user growth to 

boost their stock price. The most surprising 

thing, however, was when I was approached 

by an MVNO offering to sell me their number 

range for AIT purposes. 

With so many different factions in this game 

reaping the benefits, more and more 

companies are being encouraged and even 

pressured to follow suit. Especially taking into 

consideration the ballooning SMS prices, the 

improving filters cracking down on SIM and 

SS7 usage and the enterprises themselves 

pushing for lower prices amid rising costs. 

Why is AIT a special kind of 

menace? 

As opposed to using SIM-s or SS7-s for 

delivery, the customers still pay for the 

messages they intended to send – they know 

how much to expect from their marketing 

efforts or from deliveries, they know what 

their usual traffic every month should be. 

Even if the delivery is affected, they are 

still paying for a fixed amount they set 

and will know of delivery issues quite 

quickly. With AIT though there is no upper 

limit and the results for the customer can 

be surprising in terms of how far the 

traffic can be inflated. 

About half a year ago we started working 

with a Scandinavian e-commerce 

company that at the time send around 

300k SMS per month. Once we started 

servicing the traffic, we started seeing 

issues in the traffic profile and the high 

failure rate. 

So, we asked them if they could use 

recaptcha on their side. Using recaptcha 

helps reduce the efficiency of the AIT 

attacks as it adds a layer of human 

verification to the process that is hard to 

automate, especially at scale. The result 

was a decrease of monthly SMS from 

300k to 30k. 

They were being inflated 10x. They also 

paid 10x the cost of their usual budget 

and hence we’re looking to switch 

providers in the first place. 

When a client is no longer paying for the 

planned amount of SMS, but gets an 

invoice 10x the size expected with none of 

the needed returns, they start seeing 

SMS as a lower value tool than it is. With 

diminished ROI comes diminished usage 

and the industry takes a hit as a whole. 

Smaller local carriers take 

the hit and clients will leave 

AIT is a bit similar to using SIM-s for SMS 

I N S I G H T S | 4 6

delivery – they aren’t very hard to implement, 

but fighting against usage is much harder. 

Especially when the inflation isn’t as ridiculous 

as in the above-mentioned scenario. To find 

instances of AIT we’ve had to build new 

detection algorithms, and use machine 

learning to find patterns and we still don’t 

catch enough of the cases. 

Most companies however do not have the 

resources to build these features – especially 

the ones who are closest to the enterprises – 

the smaller local carriers. However, they quite 

often end up being the ones who need to 

explain why the invoice is 10x compared to 

the previous month and why the business is 

being charged for 8000€ worth of messages 

to Burundi when the business operates only 

in Poland. 

It is true however that the biggest reason 

why AIT exists is that the clients themselves 

have left the security holes that enable AIT 

unplugged. A valid argument, yet customers 

will first look to us for a solution, rather than 

build costly and UX damaging features on 

their side to combat AIT. Hence it is seen and 

will be seen as an issue we have to work on 

fixing. 

So, when you combine AIT with the explosive 

rise in prices over the past few years, the 

new registries and registry procedures 

coming up, and the need to whitelist more 

and more content – it seems we as an 

industry might be in for a rough ride during 

this economic downturn if our clients no 

longer see SMS as the valuable tool that it is. 

UKU TOMIKAS 

MANAGING PARTNER & CEO MESSENTE 

I N S I G H T S | 4 7

The Future Is Here: Putting People in 

Control of Their Identity with Self- 

Sovereign Identity 

Michael Becker Interviewed Drummond Reed, 

Chief Trust Officer at Evernym, an Avast 

company. They discussed the future of the 

personal data and identity marketplace. 

In this marketplace, the data subject – you, 

me, the individual, private and public 

institutions – will soon be in control of their 

personal data and identity. Through the selfsovereign 

identity (SSI) approach to data 

management, businesses and people will 

redefine the organization-individual 

relationship. In an SSI-powered future, trust 

will be restored between both parties along 

with the exchange of mutually beneficial 

value. 

We are making the industry more efficient, 

more trusted, more secure, and more 

successful. – Drummond Reed, Chief Trust 

Officer, Evernym 

The message is clear: “The future is here and 

on its way to even distribution.” That is what 

came out, loud and clear, during my 

conversation with Drummond Reed, Chief 

Trust Officer at Evernym. 

Drummond and I sat down to discuss the 

personal data and identity marketplace and 

specifically, its future. In this future, the data 

subject – you, me, the individual, private 

and public institutions – is in control of 

their personal data and identity. 

This idea is not based on some futuristic 

sci-fi movie plot; rather it is grounded in 

real, industry-standard technology (often 

referred to as the self-sovereign identity 

(SSI) approach) that is actively supported 

and being rolled out by enterprises and 

governments around the world. SSI 

promises to redefine the organizationindividual 

relationship. It has the potential 

to have a bigger impact on society than 

the introduction of the Internet. It will 

systematically re-introduce trust into 

digital engagements, which in turn will 

transform business models, create 

wealth, reduce costs, and save lives. It 

sounds far-fetched, sure, but it’s not. It is 

here. It is real. And its use will be as 

common as the web browser in a few 

years. 

The Internet and Posture of 

Distrust 

A prosperous and efficient society is built 

on trust. We rely on trust to safely and 

efficiently engage in offline and online 

interactions with people and machines. 

Simply put, trust is having confidence in 

the honesty and integrity of another. That 

is to say, we have trust when we accept 

that the identity assertions and 

information provided to us by another are 

accurate, verifiable, and factual (when 

this is not the case, we don’t call it trust – 

we call it faith). 

I N S I G H T S | 4 8

The distinction between trust and faith is one 

of the market failures of the Internet. There is 

very little trust in the internet; there is a lot of 

faith. We often talk about trust on the 

internet, but what we’re really talking about is 

faith. As noted above, to build and maintain 

trust, one should be able to verify the 

assertions made during an interaction. Since 

individuals do not have the same capabilities 

that organizations do to verify and validate 

the assertions that an entity they’re 

interacting with is making in real-time, what 

people have is faith and not trust. That faith 

is backed up by the social contract, 

commercial contracts, and regulations, true, 

but this is not really to trust but reinforced 

faith. 

For example, when boarding a plane, renting 

a car, or checking in at a hotel, the 

businesses’ individuals interact with trust that 

the proof of identity they provide (e.g., their 

driver’s license or ticket) is accurate, factual, 

and verifiable. That is to say, it represents 

who they say they are and that they fully 

intend to pay their bills with their supplied 

payment methods. 

Businesses can trust because they have the 

tools to verify the individual’s assertions. If 

they are not using these tools, then they are 

working under faith, not trust. And, individuals’ 

have faith that the businesses will 

professionally render their services and 

properly handle and safeguard their identity 

and billing information. 

Thankfully, for the vast majority of 

interactions that people have online and 

offline, the faith they have is well-founded, 

but this is not always the case. 

Why is this not the case? The intentions of 

each party in any given interaction may not 

be mutually well-understood or aligned. Just 

try reading the average terms and services 

and privacy policy today. It’s difficult; the 

average person has trouble reading them. 

The fact that the fine print empowers 

businesses to use or source an 

individual’s personal data and identity 

from third parties is not always clear (just 

think of the surveillance economy). Also, 

unintentional human error and technical 

glitches happen all the time, which 

inadvertently expose people’s data and 

identity, which in turn exposes them to 

potential harm. Finally, and sadly, not 

everyone can be trusted, as evidenced by 

the rampant growth in cybercrimes being 

perpetrated throughout the world. 

The Internet was built with the best of 

intentions. It was built with the vision of 

equality and enabling the free flow of 

information to enhance collaboration and 

exchange. However, the Internet has 

drifted from this North Star over the 

years. Today, savvy and well-informed 

Internet users know this. They approach 

the Internet with a posture of distrust 

rather than trust. They are aware of the 

surveillance economy, and that industry is 

making billions from the free flow of 

personal data and identity. They 

understand that phishing attacks, e.g. 

fraudsters representing themselves as 

someone else and trying to steal sensitive 

information, are on the rise. And, given 

this awareness, they take action. 

They install malware and antivirus 

protection, use tracker blockers, 

obfuscate their personal information, and 

take any number of other actions to 

protect themselves. Likewise, the savvy 

business is forced to maintain a security 

posture, like introducing friction such as 

multi-factor authentication into the 

customer experience and doing whatever 

else to counteract the threat of fraud 

and other malfeasance. We can do 

better. The posture of distrust that 

everyone must take is tragic. It is 

inefficient. It is costly. 

I N S I G H T S | 4 9

Luckily, personal data and identity thoughtleaders 

and leading organizations, like 

Drummond and Evernym, have a solution – 

self-sovereign identity. 

Reestablishing Trust Online 

With The Self-Sovereign 

Identity Approach 

We are about enabling digitally trusted 

relationships. – Drummond Reed, Chief 

Trust Officer, Evernym 

Today, a fundamental flaw on the Internet is 

that we can’t trust it, especially when it 

comes to personal data and identity. As Tim 

Berners-Lee notes: “we’ve lost control of our 

personal data.” 

Leading technologists, privacy, policymakers, 

human rights advocates, and more have 

been working on a new approach–selfsovereign 

identity (SSI)–to reestablish trust 

on the Internet and solve the problems of 

personal data management (including 

personal identifiers, which are sets of 

identifiers used to establish an individual’s 

identity) for the last couple of decades. This 

approach is just now reaching adolescence 

and making its way into the global market 

Drummond explains that the primary goal of 

SSI is to bring trust back to the Internet by 

enabling individuals and enterprises to use 

digital credentials to simplify and streamline 

the Internet’s digital identity management 

and personal data exchange process and 

related experiences, such as onboarding with 

a company and transacting over the Internet. 

The idea is that trust can be rejuvenated by 

making these processes and experiences 

more secure and verifiable with less work on 

the side of the individual and, in the long run, 

the enterprise. 

For instance, with SSI-powered 

experiences, no longer will people need to 

create, remember, and use usernames 

and passwords; all they’ll need is their SSI 

digital wallet. No longer will they have to fill 

out long forms; they can maintain a 

persona – a digital profile – to 

automatically provide whatever 

information that is needed for the 

situation at hand from their SSI digital 

wallet. No longer will the enterprise have 

to spend billions to fight cybercriminals, 

they’ll be able to use these savings to 

invest in innovation and serving their 

customers. These are just a few things 

the SSI has the potential to make true. 

There is so much possibility when we can 

drop the posture of distrust and take on 

the posture of trust. 

It is still in its early days, Drummond says, 

but he puts forth that “the introduction 

and adoption of SSI will change society as 

much as the introduction and adoption of 

the web did.” 

Defining Self-Sovereign 

Identity Terminology 

Self-sovereign identity is a technologically 

grounded approach for establishing 

trustworthy digital connections and 

relationships between parties engaging 

over the Internet (i.e., via computers and 

mobile devices, in both online and offline 

situations) so that they can engage in 

trusted transactions. At all times, each 

party maintains and has granular control 

over their personal data and identity. SSI, 

with cryptographic certainty, ensures that 

—through the “Trust Triangle”—each party 

knows who they’re dealing with. The 

Verifier can be assured that the data or 

identity assertion (i.e., verifiable 

credential, aka authentic data) being 

presented by the Holder is authentic 

since the information (aka Verifiable 

I N S I G H T S | 5 0

Credential) being presented has been 

verified by the Issuer. 

Let’s unpack this definition of SSI and outline 

some key terms: 

Issuer is the party that produces and certifies 

that the information represented in a 

Verifiable Credential is authentic and 

accurate. 

Holder is the individual issued a Verifiable 

Credential and who has the authority to use it 

by virtue of being in control of it and having 

the means (e.g. SSI Digital Wallet) to share all 

or part of the credential. 

Verifier is the party receiving a Verified 

Credential and looks to validate, aka verify, 

the credential’s authenticity validity (e.g., the 

driver’s license could be authentic, but is no 

longer valid because it expired). 

Verifiable Credential is an open digital 

standard for representing an information 

item or an information set that can be 

verified as having been published by an 

Issuer. For example, the information items 

(e.g., ID number, date of issuance, name and 

location of the Issuer, the name of the person 

it was issued to (aka the Holder), the 

birthdate and address of the Holder, etc.). 

The Information Set is a collection of 

information items, like all the information on a 

driver’s license or in a passport. Information 

items and sets can be further deconstructed 

by the SSI Digital Wallet or serviced down to 

verifiable insight without the disclosure of any 

more information that is necessary, e.g., “Is 

the individual 21?” or “Is the password valid?” 

In these examples, the Verifier does not need 

the individual’s complete birthdate or all the 

information on the passport as long as they 

can trust that the insight shared is accurate 

and factual. 

Authentic Data is another term (coined by 

Dave Huseby (2021)) to refer to Verifiable 

Credentials. Dave argues that the use of the 

term “credential” is limiting, as it makes one 

think solely of driver’s licenses, passports, 

tickets, and other credential-like information. 

He rightfully points out that the selfsovereign 

identity approach can be 

applied to any data, not just identifiers 

and credentials. So, authentic data refers 

to any data that the Issuer can verify. 

Trust Triangle represents the three 

parties—the Issuer, the Holder, and the 

Verifier–in a self-sovereign identity (SSI) 

organized relationship. The Issuer issues a 

Verifiable Credential. It provides the 

private key to the Holder and places a 

public key in the public register. When the 

Holder wants to assert their identity or 

present some information, the Holder will 

present all or a portion of their credential 

to the Verifier. The Verifier can then verify 

the authenticity of the assertion against 

the public registry. All of this is managed 

using state-of-the-art decentralized data 

storage and data cryptology. Note: An 

individual or enterprise can play dual 

roles. For instance, in the case of airlines, 

the airline issues a ticket to a Holder. The 

airline will also act as the Verifier when 

the hold is checking in. When the Holder is 

going through airport security, the airline 

will still act as the Issuer, but the security 

authority will be the Verifier. 

SSI Digital Wallet is a self-sovereign 

identity (SSI) application that resides on a 

phone or computer (in some instances it 

may be referred to as a personal data 

store, or personal information 

management system). Analogous to the 

I N S I G H T S | 5 1

traditional physical wallet, the SSI Digital 

Wallet will store identification cards (e.g., 

driver’s license, passwords), health insurance 

IDs, banking cards, loyalty cards, membership 

IDs, vaccines status cards, cash cards, and all 

kinds of other forms of identification and 

information (receipts, photos, notes, etc.). 

The SSI wallet differs from the physical wallet 

in that all the information stored in the wallet 

is cryptographically secure so that only the 

wallet owner (aka Holder) can access and use 

the credentials. 

Self-Sovereign Identity In 

Action 

We are far beyond the theoretical now, we 

[the industry] are delivering solutions. – 

Drummond Reed, Chief Trust Officer, 

Evernym 

During our conversation, Drummond highlights 

and alludes to the following SSI proof points 

to prove a point: “We are far beyond the 

theoretical now, we [the industry] are 

delivering solutions.” 

SSI Deployment Use Cases 

During our conversation, to prove his point, 

Drummond highlights and alludes to the 

following SSI proof points. I will add my own: 

Evernym was purchased by Avast in 

December 2021. Avast is one of the largest 

cybersecurity players and is part of the 

NorthLifeLock family. It should not be too long 

until we see more consolidation in the 

industry and more practical use cases out 

there in the wild. 

Real-Life SSI Use Cases. There are many 

real-life SSI use cases that are being rolled 

out on a global scale. 

IATA Travel Pass Initiative This is an initiative 

developed by the International Air Transport 

Association (IATA), which is the trade 

association for the world’s airlines, 

representing some 290 airlines or 83% of 

total air traffic. 

Ontario Digital ID 

EU Support for SSI by Sept. 2022 The EU 

Commission in June 2021 announced that 

it has targeted September 2022 for 

every EU Citizen to have the option to 

obtain an SSI-based digital identity. 

Estonia e-Identity Estonia has pioneered 

digital ID for its citizens, with 99% of public 

services being available online and 98% of 

all tax declarations being filed 

electronically. Interoperability is all 

enabled by voting online, e-residency, 

cryptocurrency, and private-public 

systems. The government has developed 

blockchain infrastructure (a foundational 

element of SSI) to protect itself and its 

citizens. 

The United Kingdom National Health 

System UK National Health System (NHS) 

has introduced the Digital Staff Passport, 

which will allow staff to freely move 

between hospitals, saving administration 

fees. Drummond Reed suggests that this 

will not only save time (roughly 40,000 

hours) and money but will save lives. He 

notes that practitioners will have more 

time for patients, now that they don’t 

have to spend this time on paperwork. 

Note: A useful source for self-sovereign 

identity industry insight is a blog— 

Identosphere Blogcatcher maintained by 

Kaliya Young and Infominer. It aggregates 

the blogs of hundreds of leading selfcovering 

identity companies, initiatives, 

and thought-leaders. 

Theoretical SSI Use Cases. In addition to 

the above practical self-sovereign identity 

use cases, eighteen theoretical selfsovereign 

identity use cases, and the 

technical requirements needed to 

execute them, can be found in the W3C 

Decentralized Identifier Specification. 

I N S I G H T S | 5 2

New Business Metric: Number 

of Unique Connections 

One of the most important insights I gleaned 

from my conversation with Drummond was 

this: SSI will fundamentally change how 

businesses will measure the connections and 

relationships they have with individuals. 

Business uses various direct and indirect 

methods to establish a relationship and stay 

connected with individuals. The identifiers 

used to stay connected with individuals vary 

as the individuals’ relationship with businesses 

evolves. Identifiers are used for advertising 

engagement, customer identity management 

(identification, authentication, verification), 

anti-fraud and anti-money laundering 

compliance, media asset tracking, business 

entity tracking, maintaining brand safety, 

privacy management, user experience 

management (inc. personalization), 

communication, media engagement 

measurement, and attribution, to name a 

handful. 

Common customer identity management 

identifiers include cookies (which are being 

deprecated), user single-factor and multifactor 

authentication (e.g., username and 

passwords backed up by SMS OTP, 

authentication apps, or biometrics), 

government-issued IDs, physical addresses, 

phone numbers, email addresses, credit 

cards numbers, and more. 

When using identifiers to track and engage 

individuals, enterprises must contend with 

technology, connection persistence, 

privacy, security, identity management, 

regulatory compliance, and related 

challenges. Focusing on just one of these 

is a most challenging problem for 

business. People move. In the U.S., for 

instance, 10% of the population moved in 

2019. Phone numbers go bad. Emails 

degrade (roughly 22% of emails degrade 

in a year), and most recently, individuals 

have started to adopt alias emails to 

block their real identity. You get the point 

– it is hard for a business to stay 

connected with an individual. 

In our conversation, Drummond 

remarked: “There has never been a 

connection this strong in human history 

that will be this persistent.” What 

Drummond is referring to is the DID, 

otherwise known as the decentralized 

identifier. The DID is a core element of the 

SSI experience. The DID is ugly. It is a long 

string of numbers that would mean 

nothing to anyone. Luckily, unlike email or 

phone numbers, the actual DID string 

itself is handled by the SSI applications, 

not the enterprise or the individual. Here 

is what one looks like: 

When an individual and a business 

connect via the self-sovereign identity 

approach, they share their respective 

DIDs. The connection between the parties 

will remain persistent as long as either 

party does not revoke their connection. 

Only the valid holder of a DID can use it, 

and therefore verifiable certainty of the 

relationship between the enterprise and 

the individual can be established. 

In the future, Drummond suggests that 

these connections will become the 

primary measure of business success, 

I N S I G H T S | 5 3

especially in marketing and advertising. For 

instance, today marketers use metrics like 

likes, media impressions, email opt-ins, SMS 

opt-ins, etc. These measures are fine, but 

ephemeral and lack the personal control that 

DIDs offer the individual. DIDs, however, are 

persistent and under the individual’s control. 

Again, the only way a business can obtain an 

individual’s DID is if the Holder provides it. 

Businesses won’t be able to go to data 

brokers and buy DIDs, as they do with email 

addresses today. Moreover, as soon as the 

Holder is ready to move on, the Holder can 

revoke it. Therefore, when a business reports 

on how many “direct connections” they’ve 

established with individuals, this number will 

mean something. It means that people have 

connected and stayed connected with a 

business of their own volition. This is a gamechanger. 

It means that businesses will be 

incentivized on a legit metric and forced to 

focus on building and maintaining real 

relationships (not fake bot accounts) and 

provide value if they want to keep their 

metrics up. 

connecting with. They know they’re 

connecting with me. We can drop the 

defensive posture,” Drummond says. 

Once we drop our defensive posture, a 

new kind of trusted relationship will 

emerge. More data will flow, and 

businesses and individuals alike will be in a 

position to create more and more value 

for themselves and each other. 

We’re on the verge of the next revolution. 

Let’s get ready. 

MICHAEL BECKER 

FOUNDER & CEO IDENTITY PRAXIS 

Where do we go from here? 

I have little doubt that the self-sovereign 

Identity approach will take hold and be 

mainstream at some point in the future – 

three, four, five years from now, if not sooner. 

We are still in the early days, but unlike the 

introduction of the web, which was 

completely new at its introduction to the 

world, self-sovereign identity is being planted 

in fertile ground. So be forewarned, it is going 

to grow fast. 

Drummond notes, “We forget that it took 

years for the web to settle down to the 

expectation that it ‘Just works,’ so it will take 

time for self-sovereign identity. However, as 

businesses integrate it into their systems and 

people see the value, magic will happen. 

People will begin to say, “I know who I’m 

I N S I G H T S | 5 4

Regulation of Cryptocurrencies advances 

in Brazil 

On November 29, Brazil’s Chamber of 

Deputies approved Bill No. 4401/2021, which 

regulates the cryptocurrency sector in Brazil 

and legalises the use of crypto-actives as a 

means of payment in Brazil. The bill will now 

be sent for presidential sanction, allowing it to 

come into force 180 days after the 

publication of its approval. 

Considering that the current president, Jair 

Bolsonaro, left office on December 31, this 

sanction will be left to the new president, Luis 

Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula has already 

acknowledged the expansion of cryptoactivities 

in Brazil to the media during the 

election campaign period and added that it is 

necessary to create a framework to 

harmonise national practices with 

international standards, especially concerning 

criminal activities. 

After the legal procedures for the law come 

into force, it will be up to the executive 

branch of the government – the president 

and his ministers – to determine the body or 

office in charge of overseeing cryptoactivities. 

Highlights 

The law establishes rules for the operation of 

brokerage houses and custody and 

administration services for crypto-active 

assets by third parties. The main initial 

objective of the PL was to combat cryptoactive 

crimes, including money laundering, 

and to create mechanisms to protect 

investors. Accordingly, the law establishes 

that a virtual asset is now considered a 

“digital representation of value that can be 

traded or transferred by electronic means 

and used to make payments or for 

investment purposes”. 

Virtual Assets 

The bill considers a virtual asset a digital 

representation of value that can be 

traded or transferred by electronic 

means and used to make payments or 

for investment purposes. Will be 

considered service providers of virtual 

assets the legal entities that perform 

services such as: 

Exchange, on behalf of third parties, 

of virtual currencies for national or 

foreign currency; 

Exchange between one or more 

virtual assets; 

Transfers thereof; 

Custody or administration, even of 

control instruments; 

Participation in financial services and 

provision of services related to the 

offer by an issuer or sale of virtual 

assets. 

Additionally, organs and entities of the 

public administration will be allowed to 

keep accounts in these companies and 

carry out operations with virtual assets 

and derivatives according to the 

regulation of the Executive Branch. 

Penalties 

The approved law adds to the Criminal 

Code a new type of fraud, assigning 

imprisonment from 4 to 8 years and a 

fine for those who “organize, manage, 

I N S I G H T S | 5 5

offer or distribute portfolios or intermediate 

operations involving virtual assets, securities 

or any financial assets to obtain illicit 

advantage to the detriment of others, 

inducing or keeping someone in error, through 

artifice, ruse or any other fraudulent means”. 

Regulatory entity 

The approved text also encourages the 

reduction of environmental impact in 

cryptocurrency mining, establishes the 

regulatory competence of agencies, and 

requires crypto active brokerages to have a 

CNPJ number (the company registered in 

Brazil) and legal representation in Brazil. 

Companies linked to this market will also have 

to share a greater amount of information 

with government agencies and will have six 

months to adapt to the new rules. The 

expectation is that the Securities and 

Exchange Commission (CVM) will be 

responsible for the regulation of crypto 

actives considered securities, and the Central 

Bank for other types of assets and approval 

of the operation of brokers. 

regulation of Brazilian capital abroad and 

foreign capital in the country. 

For now, we can affirm that the new law 

sets out general guidelines for the 

operation of the market, and many open 

questions will be left to specific 

regulations. Therefore, investors are not 

likely to feel immediate effects from the 

publication of the legislation, but only to 

the extent that the regulatory body is 

formed and begins the implementation 

stages of the new law. 

NATHALIA SANTOS 

SPECIALIST IN TECHNOLOGY, MEDIA, 

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND 

CONTRACTS 

PELLON ADVOGADOS 

Furthermore, according to the text of the law, 

the chosen entity should establish conditions 

and deadlines, not less than six months, for 

the adjustment to the rules of the project by 

the service providers of virtual assets that 

are in activity. Among the powers of the 

regulator are: 

Authorise the operation, transfer of 

control, and other shareholder 

movements of the virtual asset service 

provider; 

Establish conditions for the exercise of 

positions in statutory and contractual 

bodies in virtual assets service providers; 

Supervise the providers; 

Cancel, ex officio or upon request, the 

authorizations; and 

Establish the hypotheses in which the 

activities will be included in the exchange 

market or should be subject to the 

I N S I G H T S | 5 6

Does RCS need Apple? 

Michael Power, Founder & CEO of Engage 

Mobile, and Doug Makishima, CSMO of 

Summit Tech, discuss the importance of 

interoperability across messaging platforms, 

and ask a fundamental question regarding 

RCS – does it need Apple to get on board in 

order to succeed..? 

The short answer is No. Controversial? Great, 

well read on and see why we believe that, 

While interoperability and ubiquity are 

important, RCS does not necessarily need 

Apple to be successful. 

Back in the summer at RCS World, Dublin, 

July 2022, the MEF Open RCS Forum held a 

panel “Interoperability and Key Emerging 

Trends” ORF Interoperability Panel. There 

were a number of topics covered in the 

panel, ranging from the current state of 

interoperability in the industry for consumer 

and business communications through to the 

big question: What impact does Apple have 

by not implementing RCS. 

Get the Message 

RCS interoperability with iOS has 

subsequently garnered significant news 

coverage with the social impact of the ‘Blue’ 

Send button in iMessage in Google’s “It’s time 

for Apple to fix texting” blog post 

#getthemessage leading to a classic Apple 

response from Tim Cook, “buy your mom an 

iPhone”. 

Why RCS? 

RCS (Rich Communication Services) 

significantly upgrades the end user 

messaging experience with additional rich 

features, scrolling HD images, clickable 

links, video etc. RCS is now enabled on 

millions of devices and supported by 

more than 140 operators globally. It’s 

available in over 60 countries, with a total 

subscriber reach of 1.2 billion and growing 

every day as consumers upgrade their 

smart devices. 

All major Android OEMs (Original 

Equipment Manufacturers) support RCS, 

including Samsung, and provide an outof-the-box 

RCS messaging experience via 

the official Google Android Messages 

client. 

There is no shortage of end users globally 

that will benefit from RCS even without 

Apple on board. Use cases are being 

published with record-breaking sales 

figures, compared to more classic 

communication channels. Open rates, 

interactions, and increased return on 

investment are a win-win for any 

organisation adopting an RCS campaign. 

For example, the recent campaign run by 

Orange Spain to increase sales of the 

latest Samsung mobile phones (Orange 

Spain RCS Success). RCS is the digital 

marketeers dream channel. 

What does RCS need? 

Operators, Google, the GSMA, and other 

ecosystem players have helped 

accelerate RCS, and we are seeing great 

success already BUT cross platform 

support must be the ultimate goal. 

Brands should be able to send rich 

conversational campaigns to their 

customers regardless of which handset 

they use. 

I N S I G H T S | 5 7

While RCS is not available on Apple devices 

this means brands will have to use multiple 

channels to reach all their customers. This is 

an inconvenience to end-users and brands 

but provides an opportunity for aggregators 

and business messaging providers to bridge 

the gap by using RCS where available to 

maximise conversion and falling back to other 

channels where it isn’t. 

Another potential push is through the 

European Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the 

European Commission. The DMA allows for 

interoperability between two messaging 

providers. Although largely focused on 

Person-to-Person (P2P) communications, 

this would open the door to discussing cross 

platform A2P messaging in the future. 

A bit of history… Why 

Interoperability is Vitally 

Important 

Mobile operators provide valuable 

telecommunications and connectivity 

services. To provide wireless cellular service, 

they use wireless spectrum, a globally shared 

resource that is licensed by governments and 

is often subject to oversight, regulation, 

taxation, and universal access rights. 

From 2G to 5G, SMS to MMS, SD voice to 

HD voice, Wi-Fi calling/SMS support, etc. 

The global mobile operator community 

and its trade association, the GSMA, has 

upgraded the SMS specs to RCS, “SMS 

2.0” if you prefer, which significantly 

upgrades the messaging experience with 

additional “rich” features. Many large 

operators and international operator 

groups now support it. 

To sum up… 

RCS is still in the early adopter stages, but 

the A2P use cases coming out now are 

proving that RCS is the platform to beat 

when it comes to sales conversions. Once 

RCS maximises its reach, the potential for 

profit is off the charts. 

MICHAEL POWER 

FOUNDER & CEO ENGAGE MOBILE 

DOUG MAKISHIMA 

CSMO SUMMIT TECH 

Today, the three primary services offered by 

wireless carriers are voice calls, text and 

media messaging, and internet connectivity. 

All these services are globally interconnected 

and interoperable – whether the user is 

communicating across borders from home, or 

roaming to a different country, these services 

remain available. This level of redundancy has 

been highlighted recently with noticeable 

platform outages for both Kakao Talk and 

WhatsApp, leading to significant disruption 

given the conversational nature of their A2P 

use cases. 

The mobile operator community upgrades 

networks and features from time to time. 

I N S I G H T S | 5 8

5 Minutes with… TeleWhale 

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members 

talk about their business, their aspirations for 

the future and the wider mobile industry. This 

week, Business Development Manager Alena 

Korkina and Commercial Director Sam 

Kraehenbuehl introduces Telecommunication 

& IT Service Provider TeleWhale. 

TeleWhale Ltd. is a rising firm aiming 

evermore to deliver user-friendly and hasslefree 

advanced Bulk SMS Wholesales services, 

A2P SMS and Omnichannel communication 

solutions, E-Mail Marketing tools and hightech 

IT services. As a Leader in its field, 

TeleWhale Ltd. stands out as one of the 

fastest-growing global Digital connectivity and 

IT services provider. Further, and based upon 

a deep know-how of the Telecom trade, our 

team of international Wizards serve and 

support key multinational enterprises in 

reaching their audience. 

to 500+ partners, and with offices located 

in 4 countries. 

What are your main goals? 

TeleWhale Ltd. has a long-term, forwardlooking 

approach with the primary goal of 

achieving a sustainable competitive 

advantage by understanding the needs 

of our partners. By delivering adequate 

superior customer experiences and 

state-of-the-art Digital communication 

services, our goal is to be counted 

amongst the top companies of our sector 

and evolve further. TeleWhale Ltd. 

corporate aim is to penetrate other 

markets and expand its networks in order 

to enable each and all access to our 

cutting-edge services. 

When did you launch and 

what growth have you seen? 

Established in 2019 in Cyprus by a team of 

professionals with 15+ years of extensive 

know-how in the Telecom industry, TeleWhale 

Ltd. prime aim is the provision of innovative, 

cost-effective digital communication solutions 

with guaranteed quality and a high level of 

support for all our partners’ needs. 

Subsequently, our company has significantly 

grown its range and nature of services, 

values, and teamwork standards. 

By now TeleWhale Ltd. is not just a company 

but a trusted and prosperous firm offering 

more than 20 different services and solutions 

Fair business is our main pillar. Likewise, 

we aim to fight the problem of telecom 

fraud and raise its awareness in the field. 

However, as a socially and conscious 

oriented firm, we aspire to solving urgent 

issues within the environment and our 

society. Choosing action rather than 

words, TeleWhale Ltd. main moto is: “To 

Hear What is Not Being Said…”. 

Finally, we seek to grow through the 

growth that we create for our partners! 

I N S I G H T S | 5 9

Where do you see your 

business in three years’ time? 

In the next few years, we plan to broaden our 

horizons and shape a steady development in 

all areas of our sector. We are eager to 

expand our global network of partners and 

enterprise customers, thus building a 

business model on mutual and beneficial 

levels. 

Over the next few years, TeleWhale Ltd. will 

become an international corporation having 

representatives in 30+ countries and covering 

multidirectional markets in all regions with 

advanced up-to-date 5G, cloud enabled IT 

services and seamless Digital communication 

solutions. 

What aspect of mobile is 

most exciting to you right 

now? 

The mobile market is exceptionally far-flung 

and constantly changing as there are new 

opportunities every day. Omnichannel 

Messaging, as an innovative and user-friendly 

service for connecting any enterprise with 

their customers, is the future of mobile 

communications. 

It enables businesses to send simple or Bulk 

SMS campaigns to targeted consumers by 

text input, contact lists upload and immediate 

or scheduled transmission within various 

channels, such as SMS, Goggle RCS, Viber, 

WhatsApp, and Email services. 

Omnichannel Messaging is an optimal way to 

provide unified relevant interactions and 

experiences across all the messaging 

channels the audience uses. 

What’s the most critical 

issue that will hit mobile 

within the next 12 months? 

All markets face various challenges that 

may interfere with the ordinary pace of 

activity. The issue of Telco fraud is the 

rising critical issue within the Mobile 

market. 

This issue does not concern only 

fraudulent traffic that causes huge losses 

of annual income, but also data leakage 

and transactional fraud. Even though 

there are many applications to overcome 

the issue, fraudulent tools have become 

more specific. Hence, why harmful effects 

are likely to increase within the next year. 

TeleWhale Ltd. does its best to manage 

this urgent matter by implementing IT 

services that are capable of minimizing 

any partners’ costs and securing data 

protection. 

Apart from your own, which 

mobile companies are the 

ones to watch in the year 

ahead? 

A win-win position will be taken by flexible 

businesses that value quality of services 

the most and above all. One should keep 

an eye on the most successful Telcos 

established in the market for a long time, 

features a name and reputation, never 

trembles in front of challenges, and keeps 

investing towards innovation and growth. 

Our belief is that current genuine mobile 

players should provide a wide range of 

digital solutions to the market, this for all 

partners and enterprises to operate 

independently and look out for valuable 

standards in services. 

SAM KRAEHENBUEHL 

TELEWHALE LTD COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR 

ALENA KORKINA 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER TELEWHALE LTD 

I N S I G H T S | 6 0

Ericsson sells its IoT division to Aeris 

MEF Programme Director for IoT Nassia 

Skoulikariti shares her thoughts on the news 

that Ericsson plans to sell its IoT business; 

why they are making the move, how it will 

impact the sector and what new owners 

Aeris bring to the table. 

Ericsson announced it would sell its IoT 

(internet of things) business to US-based 

Aeris. The announcement comes on the heels 

of poor financial performance from Ericsson 

in this sector, which the company has stated 

it plans to let Aeris take over. 

Ericsson has recognized that its venture into 

the rapidly expanding Internet of Things 

market did not yield the desired outcomes. In 

the press statement Ericsson indicates the 

low-margin sector and difficulty in achieving 

profitability as the main reasons behind the 

decision. 

With other large technology companies 

abandoning IoT operations, most notably 

Google and IBM Watson IoT, it seems this 

shift may become more widespread in the 

near future. It is evident that IoT requires 

scale or high efficiency, many of the players in 

the market fail on both accounts. 

Connectivity is an essential factor in the 

success of IoT, but it’s not the only thing that 

matters. Value is added to connectivity in 

management platforms, applications and 

services. That’s where the real profits are to 

be made with IoT, so CSPs should focus their 

efforts there. While connectivity solutions 

add value to networks worldwide, they’re 

not necessarily a gold mine – yet. 

Ericsson has agreed to sell its IoT 

business to Aeris, including its IoT 

Accelerator connectivity management 

platform and Connected Vehicle Cloud 

platform. Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator 

division offers cellular connectivity 

solutions to enterprise clients and its 

Connected Vehicle Cloud (CVC) unit – a 

hosting service for carmakers’ fleet 

management, telematics, navigation and 

infotainment applications. 

The Swedish firm has reported that its 

IoT business, forecast to generate net 

sales of SEK 1.2 billion ($132 million) by 

2022, has been a significant contributor 

to losses in its ‘business area technologies 

and new businesses division.’ 

Ericsson announced that selling its cellular 

IoT assets will speed up market 

consolidation in the cellular IoT industry. 

The move is expected to reduce losses by 

SEK 0.25 billion ($24 million) every 

quarter and result in a one-time hit of 

SEK 1.1 billion ($96.2 million) to its profits 

(EBIT) during the fourth quarter of 2022, 

with the majority of it being registered 

during the first quarter of 2023. Ericsson 

will acquire a “small stake” in Aeris from 

this transaction. 

The Internet of Things business was not a 

core part of Ericsson’s operations. The 

company has a strategy directed 

primarily through its traditional operator 

partners. More recently, the company got 

closer to the enterprise sector with 5G 

solutions – bolstered by its acquisition of 

US-based Cradlepoint in late 2020. 

Ericsson is still involved in the IoT market, 

I N S I G H T S | 6 1

providing private cellular networks for 

Industry 4.0, public LTE and 5G airtime for 

data-intensive tracking and municipal IoT 

systems. 

Aeris is a provider of IoT solutions and 

services, and the acquisition of Ericsson’s IoT 

business allowed it to expand its portfolio and 

capabilities. Aeris, founded in 1996, has 

already worked with Softbank, AT&T, T- 

Mobile, and Vodafone, among others. This 

move will enable Aeris to offer its customers 

a more comprehensive range of IoT solutions 

and compete more effectively in the market. 

The sale of Ericsson’s IoT division to Aeris has 

drawn mixed reactions from analysts. While 

some see it as a positive development for 

Aeris, allowing them to expand their offerings 

and gain access to Ericsson’s customer base, 

others have expressed concerns about the 

impact to Ericsson’s IoT capabilities and the 

potential loss of customers. It remains to be 

seen what the long-term implications of this 

acquisition are for both companies. 

The combined IoT Platform will connect 100 

million devices in over 190 countries, and Aeris 

will take charge of IoT connectivity for 9,400 

enterprises following the transaction. 

The IoT industry is complex and fragmented 

and is due for a good shakeup. Consolidation 

will help minimise fragmentation and create 

more value in the long term. 

innovation in the IoT space have always 

been at the forefront for Aeris. 

Our intelligent, software-defined IoT 

network and Ericsson’s leading 

connectivity management platform will 

provide the leading IoT technology stack in 

the industry. We look forward to bringing 

these new, transformational IoT solutions 

and Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator and 

Connected Vehicle Cloud products to our 

customers.” 

The sale of Ericsson’s IoT business to 

Aeris is a strategic move that will enable 

both companies to focus on their core 

strengths and expand their businesses. 

The sale will enable Ericsson to focus on 

its core strengths of network, cloud and IT 

services. At the same time, Aeris will 

become the leader in providing secure 

and reliable IoT connectivity services. The 

move is expected to create synergies 

between the two companies, allowing 

them to capture the growing 

opportunities within the IoT market. Aeris 

is confident that its expertise in this 

sector will help it build on Ericsson’s 

achievements in the IoT space and drive 

innovation. 

NASSIA SKOULIKARITI 

PROGRAMME DIRECTOR – IOT MEF 

It is interesting to highlight what Åsa 

Tamsons, Head of Business Area 

Technologies & New Businesses at Ericsson, 

said: “ and has the right focus, assets, and 

capabilities to realize the full value creation 

potential of Ericsson’s IoT business and its 

strong market presence…” 

Aeris CEO Marc Jones highlighted that 

“Building the best technology to support the 

success of our customers and drive 

I N S I G H T S | 6 2

5 Telco Technology Trends for 2023 

Globe Teleservices‘ Ashutosh Agrawal looks 

ahead to 2023 and beyond to share his 

thoughts on the developing trends in the 

telecoms tech space; what will happen in 

regulation, new technologies and business 

models – read on to find out. 

Big tech companies are investing billions of 

dollars into the latest telco technology trends 

such as virtual and augmented realities, 

private wireless 5G networks, and data 

spheres. 

The 2022 telecom industry faced a dynamic 

set of challenges and overcame them. As we 

move into 2023, there will be updates in the 

regulatory, technological, and competitive 

environments. 

Here are the top 5 telco technology trends 

for 2023: 

Gaining Access to 5G Satellite 

Connectivity 

We expect a surge in 5G satellite access and 

remote rural 5G coverage to improve. There 

are many possibilities creative with the 

introduction of IoT in the mix. Companies are 

offering Networks-and-more-as-a-Service 

(N+aaS) and pay-as-you-go subscriptions to 

users in a bid to enhance user experiences. 

CSPs will extend their offerings to integrate 

local resources and provide enhanced 

latency, faster data transfers, and improved 

security and privacy to clients. Cloud 

Federations will become key to sharing 

complex resources across multi-cloud 

environments and organising dynamic 

collaborations with specific partners. 

Users can seamlessly scale infrastructures, 

deploy models, and integrate multiple assets 

as distributed service chains across different 

geo-distributed data centres. 

Rise of Digital Twins 

Digital twins represent networks and data 

services and applications together by 

analyzing data from multiple sources 

using machine learning and creating 

virtual simulations. NASA has been 

extensively using the technology in 

aerospace but CSPs are using it in various 

sectors. 

Digital twins have myriad industry use 

cases and can be used to monitor 

complex infrastructures in real time. From 

network monitoring, anomaly detection, 

visual network planning, cost simulations, 

and version management servicing, 

companies are exploring its features and 

will continue to adopt them. 

Companies like SIEMEN and General 

Electric are using digital twin technology to 

simulate and test systems at an individual 

machine level. Digital twin models use 

Computer Aided Design (CAD), analytics, 

and virtualization to manage assets, 

model system dynamics, and improve 

performance. Pilots use the technology to 

monitor aircraft and check engine health 

status. 

Migration to the Cloud 

Cloud migrations are becoming ondemand 

and there is an increase in 

autonomous vehicles adopting this 

technology. Big tech companies have 

announced increases in spending and 

startups are no longer designing 

infrastructures from scratch. Legacy 

ecosystems are being left behind and 

companies are turning to database 

virtualization for migrating legacy systems 

and doing major upgrades. 

I N S I G H T S | 6 3

Cloud technology in the telecom industry will 

bring new revenue opportunities and 

networking capabilities, and augment public 

cloud offerings to deliver high-quality services. 

Cloud infrastructures enable telecoms to be 

more agile, scalable, and flexible, and cut 

down on costs. It can leverage personality 

attributes, location, market fragmentation, 

and analytics to offer a more user-centric 

experience and create customized products 

and services. Verizon Digital Media Services 

deployed a web-application firewall (WAF) 

that’s cloud-based to deal with growing 

cybersecurity threats in the telco industry. 

Large businesses are combining mobile telco 

and fixed lines into single-managed cloudbased 

services to enable users to 

communicate in real time from any location 

and devices of their choice. Cloud simplifies 

communications, makes them omnichannel 

and improves security with no additional 

complexity. 

Machine Learning and Artificial 

Intelligence 

Cloud Service Providers are using machine 

learning and process mining to predict and fix 

issues before they become a major problem. 

For example, Atrebo is a company that helps 

MNOs achieve huge cost optimization 

benefits with telco site rentals. The 

emergence of Blockchain technology solutions 

has simplified day-to-day operations and 

enhanced transparency in supply chains. 

A Markets and Markets Research Report 

suggests that the global Blockchain telecom 

market will reach USD 993.8 million by 2023 

and grow at a CAGR of 84.4% from 2022 to 

2030. Blockchain solutions are being 

integrated with telcos to digitize over 

200,000 infrastructures and the top players 

in the market are SAP, IBM, and Microsoft. 

Shift to More Decentralized 

Architectures 

Companies are choosing to secure 

customer communications and 

transaction data by switching over to 

decentralized architectures. Innovations 

like Blockchain and Decentralized Ledger 

Technology (DLT) frameworks provide a 

means to encrypt information exchanges 

and keep all events in chains secure. 

When records are immutable, tamperproof, 

and encrypted with cryptographic 

keys, that’s when you know they’re truly 

secure. 

There are many players leveraging edge 

computing with Blockchain and network 

operators are competing with private 

players. Solutions like TxtChain from GTS 

TechLabs enable real-time consent 

management and eliminate unsolicited 

commercial communications (UCC) 

across different messaging networks. 

Conclusion 

We expect telecom companies to adopt 

massive digitization and implement IoT 

solutions into business processes in the 

coming years. Telcos will take the initiative 

to offer the best solutions to customers 

and use 6G, edge computing, and other 

futuristic technologies to create more 

immersive user experiences. The age of 

automation of telecom infrastructures is 

here and we will see further 

advancements in that domain as well. 

MR. ASHUTOSH AGRAWAL 

CMD GLOBE TELESERVICES PTE. LTD 

I N S I G H T S | 6 4

Ofcom CLI Changes: regulator tackling 

spoofing scams 

MEF Advisor Ross Flynn shares news of 

changes to UK regulator Ofcom’s rules 

around CLI data, and what the changes signal 

for the UK and broader telecoms industries. 

You don’t have to be in the telecoms industry 

to know that scam calling is absolutely rife at 

the moment. You know it, I know it and it 

seems the regulators are noticing it as well. 

That is certainly the case in the UK where the 

government regulatory body, Ofcom are 

beginning to come in with the hammer. 

The most notable change that will be 

enforced is that Ofcom have decided to 

modify one of their rules (General Condition 

(GC) C6) to require telecom providers, where 

technically feasible, to identify and block calls 

with Calling Line Identification (CLI) data that 

is invalid, does not uniquely identify the caller, 

or does not contain a number that is dialable. 

The format of a CLI should be a 10- or 11-digit 

number. Also, providers need to be actively: 

making use of information that identifies 

numbers which should not be used as CLI, 

such as Ofcom’s numbering allocation 

information and the Do Not Originate 

(DNO) list; 

identifying calls originating abroad that do 

not have valid CLI and blocking them; 

identifying and blocking calls from abroad 

spoofing UK CLI; and 

prohibiting the use of 09 non-geographic 

numbers as CLI. 

Telecoms providers in the UK will have until 15 

May 2023 to comply with these changes. 

What these changes are alluding to is one of 

the most common ways we see scamming 

occur, through ‘spoofed’ numbers in which 

victims give over their personal and financial 

information to scammers because the CLI 

data gives of the appearance of being 

from a reputable source. 

One of the most common ways this 

happens is when a number outside of the 

UK gives the appearance of being a UK 

number. 

At MEF, we usually take the stance that, 

when it comes to regulation, a light touch 

is better suited to allowing the ecosystem 

to flourish while protecting the consumer. 

The flip side of this is that lighter 

regulation means more responsibility for 

everyone on the value chain. We can’t be 

given the freedom to operate and not be 

expected to do so in a sustainable way. 

However, actually reviewing the changes 

we can see that they are not that severe, 

and some may even be surprised to learn 

they hadn’t been enforced before. 

While this is the case, it’s not a good sign 

of how we are doing. If this doesn’t lead 

to a noticeable improvement, we could 

begin to see more severe regulation 

which threatens to suffocate the market. 

To do your bit in improving this situation 

and prevent further change, get involved 

with MEF’s SMS Registry to take control 

back into the telco’s hands, growing the 

ecosystem for everyone while helping the 

consumer. 

ROSS FLYNN 

ADVISOR MEF 

I N S I G H T S | 6 5

I N I T I A T I V E S 

I N I T I A T I V E S | 6 6

Anti-Smishing – SMS Protection Registries 

MEF and its members are actively supporting the ecosystem with key 

initiatives to develop the market, free it from fraud, and support for superior 

long term customer experience. Let the MEF team know if you would like to 

join some of these activities. 

General 

For another month we have continued to see 

many examples of Scam Txt messages for 

discounted energy bills – supposedly from 

GOVUK – under fictious ‘Energy Bills Support 

Scheme’. Liaising with NCSC to ensure URL 

takedown. 

UK Registry UK – 34 

merchants, 120 brands/subbrands 

MNO update meeting held early 

November, discussed new capabilities 

and current fraud issues. 

Many UK merchants accounts come up 

for renewal in January. We have 

managed to hold the fees to the same 

level for another year – though are 

advising merchants of an increase in 12 

months time. 

As part of the NCSC new 

collaboration/engagement in the UK, we 

have started to engage additional new 

merchants sponsored by NCSC 

OFCOM – Home Office suggested an 

update meeting with OFCOM. MEF to 

arrange a review – probably in the new 

year. 

Consultation to continue with Aggregators 

regarding new functionality/development 

sponsored by NCSC. 

Further new merchants onboarded with 

others in discussion. 

Also, additional new aggregators looking 

to join the Registry(s). 

Ireland Registry 10 

merchants 

Another new aggregator has 

requested to join the Registry adding 

reporting and operational coverage. 

Spanish Registry launched 

Dec 2021– 13 Merchants 

December marks the first anniversary 

of the Spanish Registry and many 

merchants accounts come up for 

renewal. Discussing fees/ongoing 

participation with merchants. 

At least 1 new merchant likely to join 

the Spanish Registry – hopefully more 

to follow. 

Increased traffic reporting from 

aggregators provide additional 

visibility/coverage of the Registry. 

Other Territories 

Discussions continue regarding 

opportunities for new Registry rollout 

in other territories – particularly in 

Europe. 

I N I T I A T I V E S | 6 7

ABOUT MEF 

Mobile Ecosystem Forum is a not-forprofit 

global trade body that acts as an 

impartial and authoritative champion for 

addressing issues affecting the 

broadening mobile ecosystem. We 

provide our Members with a global and 

cross-sector platform for networking, 

collaboration and advancing industry 

solutions. The goal is to accelerate the 

growth of a sustainable mobile 

ecosystem that delivers trusted services 

worldwide. Established in 2000 and 

headquartered in the UK, MEF’s 

Members are active across Africa, Asia, 

Europe, Middle East, North and Latin 

America. 

MEF provides a community that offers 

Insight (reports, surveys, market 

guidance); Interaction (events, 

networking, visibility) and Impact 

(advocacy, code of conducts, industry 

initiatives). 

To join the MEF community please email: 

admin@mobileecosystemforum.com. 

Contact Sam if you’d like to contribute 

an article. 

If you would like to explore the range of 

MEF Member sponsorship opportunities 

available at any MEF Connects then 

please contact Susan. 

Follow us on LinkedIn, register for the 

member area and subscribe to MEF’s 

newsletters to keep up to date with MEF 

activities throughout the month. 

DARIO BETTI 

CEO 

SUSAN FINLAYSON-SITCH 

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS 

JAMES WILLIAMS 

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMES 

EWA PEPPITT 

GLOBAL MEMBER MANAGER 

SAM HILL 

GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS 

MANAGER 

CAROL BENITES 

MEMBER & MARKETING 

COORDINATOR 

MIKE ROUND 

PROJECT DIRECTOR REGISTRY 

NIKKI BAILEY 

REGISTRY OPERATION MANAGER 

NASSIA SKOULIKARITI 

PROJECT DIRECTOR IoT 

GUILHERME SARTORI 

ISSUE EDITOR 

GLOBAL MARKETING & EVENTS 

MINA YAZDANI 

EVENTS & COMMUNICATIONS 

COORDINATOR 

A B O U T M E F | 6 8

MOBILEECOSYSTEMFORUM.COM 

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All rights reserved. 

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MEF Quarterly 2022 - Issue 8

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