State of the Union: ConvTech, From Communications to Conversations Alan Quayle Programmable telecoms has created new markets with $100B+ in annual revenues. While significantly lowering service costs, improving the operations of many businesses, and simply making life better for most people in the world. This value creation was not possible within legacy ecosystems, rather without. The term FinTech, once called Digital Banking (and Finance and Insurance), has gripped the broader business community. While we continue to sing to the choir in Programmable Telecoms. We must find a compelling rallying cry, as what we’re doing is important and changing the world. We are a diverse group of people from around the world redefining telecoms using modern technologies (APIs, open source, web3, webRTC, cloud) for new and old service providers, and the end consumers/enterprises. Terms like CPaaS, Cloud Communications, Programmable Telecoms, UCaaS, WebRTC, CCaaS, telecom APIs, while meaningful inside the industry, have not inspired the broader business community (VCs, start-ups, investors, press). We’re proposing using a simple term: ConvTech, short for Conversation Technology. Recognizing the move from communications to conversations between people and things. A conversation is an exchange of information between two parties (humans or machines). ConvTech covers UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, telecom APIs, chat and chatbots, video communications, conferencing, workflow, etc. ConvTech is causing the disruption of the $250B enterprise telecoms market, moving it mostly to the cloud and internet. We're going to review the landscape, market sizes, and state of play across this broad and relatively unrecognized category and some of the adjacent categories that for simplicity we group under the category of ConvTech.

1. State of the
Union:
Programmable
Telecoms

2. We’ve seen quite a few transactions of late…

3. Amongst the TADS Sponsors

4. And the rest of the market…

5. Somedays it feels like a never ending game
of musical chairs…

6. Does
Programmable
Telecoms
Exist?

7. CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, open source telecom
software, CPaaS enablers, Multi-Factor
Authentication / Instant Authentication, Telecom
APIs, WebRTC, Cloud Communications, CPaaS
enabled services, omnichannel, telecom
infrastructure as code, telecom service dashboards,
the myriad of UIs making APIs and enablers and
services useable beyond coders.
The Acronym Soup / Lead by Examples
Definition

8. The Architectural Definition

9. If its Telecom related, and its programmable /
configurable its Programmable Telecoms.
Here’s a Potted History
http://alanquayle.com/2018/06/potted-history-of-
programmable-telecoms/
The KISS Definition

10. Yes, Programmable
Telecoms Exists.
And its getting
Democratized!

11. Then How Big
Is It?

12. CPaaS (voice and messaging) $8B by 2021, 57% CAGR
UCaaS estimate $33B by 2021 CAGR 11%
SIP Trunking US $5.5B (2021), Global $11B, CAGR 14%
CCaaS estimate $18B (2021) CAGR 25%
A2P SMS Market estimates vary greatly from $12B to $60B with CAGR -
10% to 40%. CPaaS estimates do not include legacy SMPP deals. We’re
taking the lower estimate of $12B, and this may be high.
Global Mobile Authentication (MFA) $11B, 18% CAGR
Mobile Marketing, IoT, enterprise telecoms, collaboration, charging
payments and wallets, +++
>$100B in 2021

13. $100B per year! <evil laugh>

14. $8B
$1B
$7B

15. To paraphrase Thomas
Howe’s quote:
“Programmable
Telecoms is the
essential spice of every
ecosystem.”

17. By the numbers
• 5 TADHack Global
• 8 TADHack-mini
• 44+ countries including: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Brasil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Mexico, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South
Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA,
Zambia.
• 100+ cities
• 11,400 Registrations
• 1000+ pitches

18. By the numbers
• $250k+ distributed in prize money
• $100k in additional goodies and vouchers
• 84 sponsors
• 150+ partners including 16 Universities
• 700+ YouTube videos with >200k minutes of viewing, some videos have
been viewed over 5000 times.
• 1 million tweet impressions
• 11 companies founded
• 46 people we know we’ve helped with their job search, plus 100s more add
TADHack to their resume and LinkedIn profile
• 19 services launched into communities
• People from ages 14 to 85 have taken part in TADHack!

20. 2014

21. 2015

22. 2016

23. 2017

24. 2018

26. BUT…
• We're the choir
• Of course WE get it, that’s why we’re here
• But why don't others?
o Why do we struggle in some markets to attract people to TADHack, and
therefore to the programmable telecoms community
o Gathering TADHack Global sponsors this year felt for Alan like drawing
blood from a stone, and 2 just dropped out after CEO commitment
What do you think?

27. BUT…
• Why do - outside of Twilio, other CPaaS poviders, and a few OpCos
like IdeaMart, MTN, etc. – most major OpCo's suck at developer
engagement for over 2 decades?
What do you think?

28. BUT…
• How do we create a buzz around our category like FinTech?
o How do we attract more of the startup communities, the investor
communities, and indeed some more sponsors for TADSummit /
TADHack from large players?
o The Financial types and large / legacy players are making a killing in our
category because its undervalued
o In AI, teams are being bought for multiple billions with only professional
services revenues masquerading and recurring revenues
What do you think?

29. BUT…
• Do we need a good PR? An industry body?
o There are lots of dysfunctional contenders: CCA, TMF, MEF, etc.
• Am I the only APAC guy to come to TADSummit again?
What do you think?

30. BUT…
• Is it the name?
o Programmable Telecoms
o Telecom Application Development
o Cloud Communications
o Telecom APIs
o Communication APIs / CPaaS
• They’ve simply not struck a broader cord, would something like
o Conversation Technology
o ConvTech
What do you think?

31. BUT…
• Should we simply let this category trundle along as is, letting the
legacy players harvest what we’ve sown…
What do you think?

33. Action on Alan: Create a TADS250