At CASA25’s Showcase Challenge, not every demo was about AI agents or voice bots. XConnect’s Mark Harvey took a different route — literally.

Instead of asking what can AI do with networks?, Mark asked a simpler, and arguably harder, question:

What happens when network APIs actually work together — across borders, at scale, in the real world?

The answer came in the form of something unexpected: the world’s first truly global marathon.

It sounds like a gimmick. Until you realise what’s really being demonstrated.

The Problem with Most “Network API” Use Cases

Mark kicked off with a blunt observation. Most network API discussions today are local.

Single country. Single operator. Single use case.

Yet the real promise of telecom networks has always been global. Connectivity without borders. Services that work wherever people are — not just where an operator happens to operate.

So the XConnect team flipped the model.

What if you designed a use case that had to work across countries, networks, and operators from day one?

A Global Marathon, Powered by Telco APIs

The concept was deceptively simple.

Participants around the world run a marathon together — not in the same city, not even the same country, but connected digitally through a shared experience. Your marathon buddy might be in London while you’re running in Amsterdam. Different routes, same distance. Different conditions, shared challenge.

This wasn’t a mock-up. The app exists. It works. And under the hood, it’s powered entirely by telco APIs.

Not one or two — twelve GSMA Open Gateway APIs, layered together.

Why One API Is Never Enough

This was the real lesson of the demo.

• Number Verification enabled seamless login without passwords or OTP friction.
• Device Location ensured runners were where they said they were — no spoofing, no cheating.
• Geofencing dynamically adjusted routes in real time when runners hit roadblocks or restricted areas.
• Quality on Demand ensured the app kept working during high-density events with thousands of runners.
• KYC verified that users were who they claimed to be — using operator-grade data, not third-party guesswork.
• Roaming APIs confirmed cross-border authenticity without VPN tricks.
• OTP existed as a fallback, because resilience matters.
• Traffic Influence helped organisers manage crowds and alert authorities when needed.
• Carrier Billing opened the door to commerce, subscriptions, and operator revenue.
• SIM Swap and fraud-related APIs added another layer of trust and security.

Individually, these APIs are interesting.

Together, they create something meaningful.

That was the mic-drop moment.

From “Just a Demo” to a Commercial Question

Mark was refreshingly honest. This wasn’t built as a product. It started as “a bit of fun.”

But then something interesting happened.

A major sports brand asked a very real question: “Is this commercial?”

Suddenly, the conversation shifted.

If Strava can reach 150 million users and generate hundreds of millions in revenue, why couldn’t a telco-enabled platform — with built-in trust, identity, billing, and global reach — unlock similar value?

Subscription models. White-labelled platforms. Operator-led services. Brand partnerships. Commerce.

The business models are obvious once the capability exists.

Who Actually Wins?

That question came fast from the judges.

Mark’s answer was clear: operators should be the ultimate winners.

Not by selling one API at a time, but by enabling platforms that others want to build on. By making networks programmable in ways that developers, brands, and global communities can actually use.

The global marathon wasn’t about sport.

It was about showing that real value emerges when APIs are layered, orchestrated, and exposed as part of an ecosystem — not sold as isolated technical features.

Not a Sprint, a Marathon

There was a fitting metaphor in Mark’s closing exchange.

A global marathon isn’t about racing the same hill, the same street, or the same temperature. It’s about running the same distance together.

Much like network APIs.

This isn’t a sprint for quick wins. It’s a long-term play that rewards collaboration, scale, and persistence.

Or as Mark put it:

“Let’s run the world together.”

At CASA25, XConnect showed that when telco APIs stop living in slide decks — and start powering shared experiences — the opportunity becomes very real, very fast.

At CASA25, the Showcase Challenge wasn’t about polished slides or perfect demos. It was about ambition, direction, and showing where this industry is heading. Telnyx’s session delivered exactly that—even if the demo gods decided to test everyone’s patience along the way.

What looked like a simple appointment reminder call quickly revealed something far more interesting: a glimpse of how CPaaS is evolving from APIs and flow builders toward natural-language-driven platforms built for Voice AI at scale.

A Voice-First CPaaS, Built Before Voice AI Was Cool

Pete, leading the Telnyx showcase, has seen the CPaaS industry evolve from the inside. From witnessing Jeff Lawson demo early Twilio at an SF New Tech meetup, to becoming the first product manager for voice at MessageBird, to now helping build Telnyx’s European presence—he’s lived through multiple CPaaS eras.

That context matters, because Telnyx is not an SMS company adding voice as an afterthought. It started as a voice and number provider, building its own network over the past decade with a focus on high-definition audio, low latency, and global reliability.

That foundation turns out to be critical for Voice AI.

While many AI voice solutions stitch together third-party telephony, cloud AI, and infrastructure layers, Telnyx brings voice, messaging, numbers, storage, GPUs, and AI orchestration together in one platform. The result is not just convenience—it’s control over latency, quality, and reliability, which are non-negotiable for real-time conversational AI.

The Demo: When Voice AI Meets the Real World

The live demo aimed to show a simple but powerful use case: an automated voice assistant calling to confirm or reschedule a healthcare appointment.

The assistant did call.

It did understand intent.

And it also stumbled—mishearing a response and handling an edge case imperfectly.

That moment, instead of undermining the story, actually reinforced it.

Voice AI doesn’t fail because the idea is wrong. It fails when transcription, prompts, or latency aren’t yet tuned for messy, real-world human behavior: accents, hesitation, nerves, background noise. And as Pete openly explained, this wasn’t a network failure—it was a prompt depth and transcription issue. In other words: solvable problems.

The key takeaway wasn’t the hiccup. It was what was happening behind the scenes.

Voice AI Without Developers (Yes, Really)

One of the most compelling parts of the Telnyx story is who can now build voice applications.

The demo was created by a product marketing manager—not a developer—using tools like n8n and Supabase, connected to Telnyx’s Voice AI capabilities. No custom telephony code. No SIP gymnastics. No AI plumbing nightmares.

Instead, the logic is defined in natural language:

• What should the assistant do?
• What outcomes are allowed?
• How should edge cases be handled?

This marks a real shift in CPaaS evolution:

• First era: code-only APIs (powerful, but developer-exclusive)
• Second era: no-code / low-code flow builders
• Next era: natural language as the interface to CPaaS

Telnyx isn’t abandoning APIs or low-code tools. They’re adding a new layer on top—one where “speaking English to CPaaS” becomes a legitimate way to build.

Model Choice, Voice Choice, and Real Flexibility

Another important signal from the Telnyx platform: it doesn’t lock customers into a single AI stack.

Users can choose:

• LLMs (OpenAI, Google, Groq, others)
• Voice engines (Telnyx-native voices, Azure, AWS, ElevenLabs)
• Integration patterns (webhooks, Zapier, MCP servers)

That flexibility matters in a market where AI quality, cost, compliance, and sovereignty requirements vary widely by use case and region—especially in Europe.

Telnyx positions itself less as “the AI model provider” and more as the orchestration layer where Voice AI actually meets the network.

Why Voice AI Needs a Telco-Grade Backbone

One theme came up repeatedly during the Q&A: call quality.

Many customers experimenting with Voice AI start with tools like VAPI or standalone voice-generation platforms. Then reality hits—latency issues, dropped audio, unreliable call handling. That’s when they come looking for a provider that understands telephony deeply.

Voice AI only works when:

• Latency is consistently low
• Audio quality is predictable
• Fraud, abuse, and traffic anomalies are monitored in real time

Telnyx has been solving those problems for over a decade. Voice AI just raises the stakes.

From Enterprises to the Long Tail

So who is this for?

Not everyone at once.

Telnyx sees Voice AI adoption starting internally—tools for teams, operations, scheduling, data collection—and then moving outward to SMBs and mid-market platforms that want to embed voice intelligence directly into their products.

The real scaling lever isn’t selling to 50,000 restaurants one by one. It’s enabling platforms, MSPs, and SaaS providers to resell and embed Voice AI as a native capability. That’s why Telnyx is investing in channel partners—especially those already selling SIP trunks and looking for their next growth engine.

Guardrails Matter

Voice AI is powerful—and dangerous in the wrong hands.

Here again, Telnyx’s telco DNA shows. Fraud detection, traffic anomaly alerts, call-rate monitoring, and abuse prevention aren’t new features bolted on for AI—they’re already part of the platform.

That’s a meaningful differentiator as Voice AI moves from experiments to production.

The Bigger Shift: From Developers to Assistants

Pete closed with a line that stuck with many in the room:

We’re moving from “Ask your developer” to “Ask your assistant.”

That’s not just a tagline. It’s a reframing of who CPaaS is for, how products get built, and how value gets unlocked—especially in the long tail of businesses that never had access to this level of communication intelligence before.

The Telnyx demo may not have been perfect. But the direction was clear.

Voice is back.

Voice is intelligent.

And the platforms that truly understand voice—from the network up—are the ones best positioned to lead this next phase of CPaaS.

A phone call. That’s the point.

At first glance, what the audience saw during this CASA25 Showcase Challenge didn’t look very exciting. A phone. A dialer. A live call.

No app demo. No futuristic UI. No flashy slides.

But that was exactly the point.

What Adnan Saleem from Radisys showed was a real phone call—using the native dialer—backed by an agentic AI assistant that doesn’t live in an app at all. The AI lives inside the telco network itself. And once you realize that, everything about the demo changes.

This wasn’t voice calling plus AI. It was AI voice as a native network capability, available on any device, on any operator network, without downloads or friction.

For readers who want to go deeper into the architecture behind this approach, Adnan covered that earlier at CASA25 in his keynote: “Voice Is Back (and Smarter Than Ever): How Radisys Is Unlocking New AI Revenue Streams for Telcos.”

👉 https://casa25.amsterdam/2025/10/11/voice-is-back-and-smarter-than-ever-how-radisys-is-unlocking-new-ai-revenue-streams-for-telcos/

A personal AI assistant, reached through the dialer

Instead of opening with architecture diagrams, Adnan went straight into the experience. Using his native phone dialer, he called his personal virtual assistant.

The assistant already had access to private information Adnan had explicitly shared—documents, calendar entries, reminders—and could also draw on public data when needed. He asked about upcoming travel, reminders for purchases, and itinerary details, all through a simple voice interaction.

Turning a phone call into a shared AI experience

The pivotal moment came when Adnan asked the assistant to place an outbound call to his colleague Ralph.

The call connected like any normal voice call. No applications on either side. Once Ralph joined, Adnan invited the virtual assistant into the live call, turning it into a three-party conversation. The AI actively participated—suggesting restaurants near Amsterdam Central Station, answering follow-up questions, and staying fully aware of the context of the discussion.

Automatic summaries, actions, and memory

When the call ended, the system automatically generated a call summary, action items, and a full transcript. These were delivered instantly via SMS with a secure link.

Meetings were identified, dinner plans captured, and next steps outlined—without anyone taking notes or switching tools. Adnan then showed how the call transcript could be imported into the assistant’s private knowledge base.

To close the loop, he called the assistant again and asked about his upcoming meetings and dinner plans. The AI responded instantly and accurately, using the context from the call that had just taken place.

Why “native” matters

What made this demo stand out was not just the AI, but where it lived.

This wasn’t an app layered on top of voice. It was native to the network itself. There was nothing to install, no interoperability issues, and no reliance on high-end smartphones. The service worked on any device, on any operator network, wherever voice works.

That makes it always available—and inherently inclusive.

The operator opportunity

During the Q&A, the conversation naturally shifted to monetization. From an operator perspective, how does this turn into real revenue?

Adnan outlined two clear paths. At the consumer level, this becomes a value-added service—an incremental monthly charge for a powerful personal productivity assistant. At the SMB and enterprise level, the value increases significantly: automatic call summaries, embedded business intelligence, action tracking, and AI-assisted workflows tied directly to everyday voice conversations.

Questions around AI accuracy, data privacy, and enterprise readiness were addressed directly. These are real concerns, but also expected steps on the path to large-scale commercial deployment—not fundamental blockers.

The bigger takeaway

The broader takeaway from this CASA25 Showcase Challenge was simple but important.

Voice doesn’t need to be reinvented. It needs to be elevated.

When AI voice is built directly into the operator network, the network itself becomes the platform—unlocking a new class of services that are personal, contextual, and ready to scale.

During the CASA25 Showcase Challenge, four strong contenders took the stage to demonstrate how they are shaping the future of communications. The final demo of the session, delivered by Robert Galop of Creo Solutions, didn’t just close the challenge — it reframed how many in the room think about conversations, data, and value creation.

By the end of the session, it was clear why Creo Solutions was later announced as the overall winner. Their demo didn’t focus on a single feature or narrow use case. Instead, it presented a bold but practical vision: conversations themselves are becoming a foundational data layer for enterprises, and the industry needs the infrastructure to manage, govern, and monetize them at scale.

VCONs as a New Industry Catalyst

Robert started by anchoring his story in context. The communications industry has seen a few defining inflection points over the past decades — HTML in the early 90s, SIP in the late 90s, and large language models in the early 2020s. Each of these moments unlocked entirely new business models and ecosystems.

His claim was simple but powerful: 2025 will be remembered as the year VCONs, combined with AI, kicked off the conversation intelligence era.

What makes VCONs different is their scope. Rather than treating conversations as transient events or isolated transcripts, VCONs capture structured, contextual information across the entire customer journey — from voice calls and contact center interactions to meetings, emails, social media reviews, and even legacy channels like fax. In Robert’s view, today’s conversation intelligence tools only scratch the surface of what’s possible when conversations become a shared, interoperable asset.

The Coming Explosion of Conversation Data

Looking ahead to 2026, Robert painted a picture of scale. As telco networks, UCaaS, CCaaS, and enterprise applications increasingly generate VCONs by default, the industry will soon be dealing with billions of conversations created every single day.

That volume raises an obvious question: where do all those VCONs live, and how do they become useful rather than overwhelming?

This is where Creo Solutions’ core proposition comes in.

Introducing the Conversation Intelligence Cloud

Creo Solutions is building what Robert described as a conversation intelligence cloud — a platform designed to ingest VCONs from across the ecosystem and turn them into something operational.

The platform is built to serve multiple constituencies at once:

• Telcos that already carry the conversations across their networks
• Application vendors generating VCONs through UCaaS, CCaaS, and collaboration tools
• Enterprises that want actionable insight, not raw data

At its core, the cloud combines intelligence, media connectivity, and security. But just as importantly, it includes a set of ready-made applications that help customers get started quickly. These apps are not positioned as the end state, but as an on-ramp — something tangible that can be sold, deployed, and understood today, while enabling much richer innovation over time.

Consent, Compliance, and Trust by Design

One of the most compelling parts of the demo was the emphasis on compliance and consent.

Robert shared a real-world example from early deployments where a CSP began sending customer data into the platform — only for Creo Solutions to discover that no proper consent had ever been gathered, and that highly sensitive personal conversations were being processed without visibility or control. The result was a full data purge and a rethink of how consent must be enforced at the conversation level.

From that experience emerged a robust consent control layer. The platform checks whether consent exists, whether callers were notified, and whether consent was withdrawn. It also performs redaction and anonymization where needed, ensuring that conversation intelligence can scale without eroding trust or regulatory compliance.

From Raw Conversations to Usable Experiences

Rather than flooding users with dashboards or transcripts, Creo Solutions focuses on surfacing what actually matters.

Robert demonstrated several “copilots” designed for real-world users — especially SMBs and SMEs who are not living inside enterprise analytics tools:

• First Alert Copilot, which flags high-risk or high-priority conversations, such as customers threatening to churn
• Call Summary Copilot, which extracts key actions and commitments from calls
• Daily recaps delivered via email, so business owners on the road still stay informed

In the live demo, a billing dispute call — scripted using ChatGPT — flowed through the platform. The system automatically detected customer frustration, escalated an alert to the business owner, generated a task list, and summarized the interaction without requiring anyone to manually review the call.

The result is a lightweight but powerful alternative to traditional CRMs: every conversation, every commitment, and every issue captured and tracked — with easy integration into tools like HubSpot or Zendesk when needed.

Querying the Business Through Conversations

Beyond alerts and summaries, Robert hinted at what comes next.

All conversations are stored, vectorized, and made available to large language models. That means enterprises can begin querying their entire conversation history — not just for reporting, but for deeper reasoning, pattern detection, and even business planning.

When combined with concepts like MCP servers and deep reasoning, the idea of running complex analysis across every customer interaction becomes not just feasible, but practical.

A Clear Monetization Story for Providers

The final piece of the demo — and one that clearly resonated with the judges — was the business model.

Creo Solutions makes it easy for providers to integrate through multiple connectivity options. Once connected, telcos and service providers can:

• Upsell copilots alongside UCaaS and CCaaS seats
• Add insight-driven services on top of basic connectivity
• Dramatically increase ARPU without changing core infrastructure

Robert summed it up succinctly: this is a path to more than doubling revenue per customer by adding intelligence to calls that today generate zero value beyond basic connectivity.

When challenged with an elevator pitch to a telco CEO, his answer was equally direct: every call that crosses your network is currently discarded from a value perspective — this platform turns every one of those calls into a monetizable asset.

Why Creo Solutions Took the Win

The Showcase Challenge judges weren’t just looking for interesting technology. They were looking for something that could scale globally, align with telco realities, and solve real enterprise problems.

Creo Solutions checked all three boxes.

By positioning VCONs as a shared foundation, embedding consent and trust by design, and delivering practical applications with a clear revenue story, the team demonstrated not just a product — but a platform with ecosystem-level implications.

It’s no surprise, then, that Creo Solutions was ultimately announced as the winner of the CASA25 Showcase Challenge. Their demo captured both the urgency and the opportunity facing the communications industry as conversations themselves become the next great data frontier.

If this is what the conversation intelligence era looks like at kickoff, the next few years are going to be very interesting indeed.

It’s 10 a.m. in Amsterdam, and the Tobacco Theater is buzzing. The lights dim, the cameras roll, and CPaaS Acceleration Alliance founder Rob Kurver steps onto the stage. “Wow. Good morning, everybody,” he begins. “Welcome to Amsterdam. It’s so amazing that after a couple of years of building this alliance, we have this group here together — telcos, CPaaS players, analysts, technologists, investors… and then some.”

The room, a mix of deep industry veterans and new innovators, breaks into smiles. This is CASA25 — the third edition of an event that’s fast become the gathering place for those shaping the future of communications.

From Swamp to Innovation

Rob kicks things off with a bit of history about the venue. The Nes, the old Amsterdam street where the theater sits, was once a swamp, reclaimed in 1342. Over centuries it evolved — first home to churches, then to traders, and later to a tobacco auction house. “You can turn anything into a hype cycle,” he jokes. “We went from the swamp — the innovation trigger — to the peak of expectation with the churches, to the trough of disillusionment with tobacco, and now the plateau of productivity.”

Then comes the punchline: “If you think about it, instead of five churches, we now have five big LLM guys — Mark, Sam, and the others. The role of the church centuries ago has been replaced by the role of Big Tech today.”

Three Years, Three Days, Three Big Moves

There’s a running theme in Rob’s welcome: the power of three.

• Year 1: Connect — bringing telcos and CPaaS together.
• Year 2: Grow — exploring real use cases.
• Year 3: Accelerate — creating impact.

“Kevin and I started this thing three years ago,” Rob recalls. “The idea was to bridge the gap between telcos and CPaaS. Those early conversations were… interesting. ‘You’ll be our first member!’ doesn’t always sell.”

Today, with 120+ active members and partners representing roughly half a trillion dollars in market cap, the Alliance is no longer an experiment — it’s an ecosystem.

And CASA25 marks a milestone with three announcements:

• The State of CPaaS 2025 Report, written by Andrew Collinson, examining how the industry moves from $30B toward $100B — not in theory, but in practice.
• A new investment partnership — “putting our money where our mouth is” to accelerate growth across the ecosystem.
• The Case Directory, expanding last year’s Playbook into a living repository of use cases and business outcomes.

“We Want to Make a Difference”

This, Rob emphasizes, isn’t about yet another conference. “We don’t just want to have an event and some dinners. We really want to make an impact. This alliance was built to change something — to move the industry forward together.”

Kevin Joins the Stage: “The Moment We’ve Been Building Toward”

Enter Kevin Nethercott, co-founder and master evangelist. He laughs as he takes the stage — “I might be the oldest guy in the room now, but I’ve never been more excited.”

Kevin draws a parallel to the early days of VoIP: “When we moved from TDM to IP, the world changed. SIP alone enabled nearly a trillion dollars of new business. What’s coming next — AI, vCons, and agentic automation — is that level of transformation all over again.”

He teases what’s ahead: the launch of a new working group focused on vCons, and an afternoon exploring AI’s disruption of the communications stack. “When I first saw Netscape, I knew the world would never be the same. That’s where we are now with AI.”

The Road Ahead: Two Days of Doing, Not Talking

The rest of Day 1 dives into Intelligent Engagement — starting with Vonage’s Neelam Sandhu, followed by the unveiling of the State of CPaaS report and a debate among analysts about the market’s future.

The afternoon shifts gears to AI disruption and vCons, followed by a preview of the new investment partnership. “And then,” Rob smiles, “there’s only one thing to do — get drunk.” Attendees laugh as he announces the evening party at the Chin Chin Club — a speakeasy-style celebration complete with Amsterdam’s famous bitterballen.

Day 2: The Fight Club Rule

Kevin sets the tone for the next morning. “We start at 10 a.m. with Fight Club. And the first rule of Fight Club? You can’t say CPaaS.” The audience chuckles. “Tomorrow is all about customers, use cases, and monetization. We’ve talked enough tech. Let’s focus on what drives value.”

The day features a keynote from Gamma, a showcase of real-world enterprise use cases, and sessions on Network APIs and Open Telcos. It ends with the CPaaS Showcase Challenge — “where American Idol meets CPaaS,” as Kevin puts it — before everyone gathers again for drinks.

Workshops and Day 3: Rolling Up Sleeves

New this year are hands-on workshops, hosted by sponsors like Radisys, Crexendo/NetSapiens, GSMA and the vCon Foundation. With limited seats (“and the right to strike competitors from the list,” Rob jokes), these small sessions dive deeper into the how.

Day 3 caps off the week with the GSMA Open Gateway Analyst Summit, a focused, invite-only deep dive into the future of network APIs — and the next step in bridging telecom and innovation.

From Connection to Impact

As Rob wraps up, he gestures to the crowd. “Three years ago, we set out to connect telcos and CPaaS. Now we’re ready to create impact. Let’s make these three days count.”

The lights fade, applause fills the theater, and CASA25 officially begins — not as another conference, but as a movement built on collaboration, curiosity, and a shared determination to shape what comes next.

At CASA25, Melissa Holtz, Senior Research Manager at IDC, led a high-energy discussion on one of the most strategic questions in communications today:

how can telcos reclaim ownership and differentiation in an API-driven, AI-infused world?

The panel — featuring Michael Brandenburg (RingCentral), Nicola Fidanzia (Ooma/2600Hz), Jörgen Björkner (iotcomms.io), and Jon Brinton (Crexendo/NetSapiens) — explored how service providers can build their own platforms without depending entirely on hyperscalers or global CPaaS vendors. The result was a candid look at what “platform sovereignty” really means — and why vertical APIs and agentic AI may finally make it possible.

APIs as the Glue in a Fragmented Ecosystem

Melissa opened with a key observation:

“It’s not just about CPaaS or network APIs. APIs are the glue connecting everyone across the ecosystem.”

Indeed, all four panelists represent different layers of that ecosystem — from UCaaS/CCaaS platforms to deep API frameworks and full-stack CPaaS offerings. What unites them is the belief that flexibility and control matter again. Telcos want the ability to deploy locally, meet compliance and sovereignty requirements, and build services that reflect their customers’ realities — not someone else’s roadmap.

From Open Platforms to Vertical APIs

RingCentral’s Michael Brandenburg reminded the audience that the company’s journey toward an open platform started more than a decade ago — long before “CPaaS” was a mainstream term.

“We don’t really call it a CPaaS, but everything we do is API-enabled,” he said.

“The milestone moment was when we opened our platform and built around APIs — that’s what allowed UCaaS, CCaaS, events, and AI to converge.”

That convergence has made RingCentral’s approach increasingly “verticalized.” Financial services, healthcare, and retail clients now expect communication tools that speak their business language.

“Standalone solutions are no longer a go-forward strategy,” Brandenburg emphasized. “Every engagement starts with integration.”

iotcomms.io: Bottom-Up Innovation and AI Data Bridges

For Jörgen Björkner, co-founder of iotcomms.io, the story starts from the bottom up. His company works closely with developers and telcos to solve specific problems, often co-creating solutions before standardizing them for others.

“Instead of saying, ‘here’s our standard API, good luck,’ we collaborate deeply with our partners. Every challenge we solve becomes a reusable module for the next one.”

That hands-on approach led to AI Connect, an AI-enabled service that unifies real-time telco data and metadata for AI systems. It bridges the messy world of codecs, networks, and protocols — feeding AI platforms clean, contextual streams.

For Björkner, the lesson is clear: innovation happens when telcos and developers meet halfway, not when they operate in silos.

Crexendo (NetSapiens): Compliance, Customization, and the Partner Edge

Jon Brinton, CRO of Crexendo (NetSapiens), described a company that powers over 7 million users through 235+ service providers worldwide — often invisibly.

“We’re the NVIDIA inside their experience,” he said. “End customers don’t know it’s NetSapiens — our partners are the ones bringing vision and vertical specialization.”

That partner-led model has created surprising success stories, from financial compliance use cases to pest control field services — all powered by APIs. The challenge, Brinton noted, is balancing agility with reliability and security:

“With that many deployments, you can’t break what’s already working. Every update has to respect compliance frameworks, privacy, and sovereignty.”

Crexendo uses early-access programs and iterative DevOps cycles to test new AI capabilities safely — echoing a theme across the panel: AI can’t just be plugged in; it has to be governed.

Ooma / 2600Hz: Voice Reimagined, ROI Proven

Nicola Fidanzia of Ooma/2600Hz highlighted a white-labeled platform that lets telcos and niche providers build their own branded UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS offerings. The flexibility is crucial, but the results speak louder.

He shared a case study with ServiceTitan, a platform for electricians, plumbers, and HVAC installers:

“By integrating our APIs with their preferred AI provider, they went to market in under two quarters — and increased lead conversion by 11%.”

Fidanzia also pushed back on the “voice is dead” narrative:

“Voice is still king. AI gives it a second life as another data channel — one that’s natural, human, and incredibly powerful.”

His advice for telcos experimenting with AI was pragmatic: start small.

“Don’t chase impossible problems. Begin with simple AI tasks in voice, see real outcomes, and build from there.”

Beyond Tech: Cultural Transformation and DevOps Mindset

For Björkner, the hardest challenge isn’t APIs or AI — it’s culture.

“Technology is the easy part. The real shift is how you organize around it.”

He contrasted today’s agile DevOps loops with the old telco model of multi-year feedback cycles.

“In the past, it took a year to learn something was broken — and another year to fix it. Now, the same team builds, runs, and fixes in real time.”

That mindset shift — from silos to speed — is what telcos must internalize if they want to own their platforms rather than rent them.

Guardrails for an AI-Driven Future

As the discussion closed, Holtz returned to AI’s risks — hallucinations, toxicity, and loss of control.

Brinton summed up the group’s philosophy:

“Start with the problem. Involve customers early. Use AI as a pillar, not a starting point. Feedback from partners and users is the best guardrail you’ll ever build.”

Key Takeaways

• Ownership matters again — telcos want flexible, sovereign platforms they can deploy locally.
• APIs are the new backbone — enabling integration, verticalization, and business differentiation.
• AI is here — but governance and culture determine success.
• Voice is reborn — as a rich, data-driven input channel for intelligent engagement.
• DevOps and co-creation are replacing the old vendor-carrier model with something faster, more collaborative, and ultimately, more human.

CASA25 once again showed how the CPaaS, UCaaS, and network API worlds are converging — and how telcos can finally build platforms they truly own.

Moderated by Žiga Lešnik, Simon-Kucher, with Markus Kümmerle (Project CAMARA), Mark Harvey (XConnect), Álvaro Navarro (Vonage), and Andrés Burgoa (Aduna)

At CASA25, Žiga Lešnik of Simon-Kucher hosted one of the most dynamic and candid panels of the week — bringing together leaders from across the emerging network API value chain. What unfolded was a mix of celebration, hard truth, and cautious optimism about the road ahead for network APIs.

The New API Economy Takes Shape

The session opened with Markus Kümmerle of Deutsche Telekom — one of the original driving forces behind Project CAMARA — recounting how far the ecosystem has come.

Five years ago, he started Deutsche Telekom’s API program “as a one-man show,” building the GitHub, website, and onboarding the first 1,300 members himself. “We learned early that we only win together,” he said, describing how CAMARA’s success was born out of collaboration.

His point landed with the audience: telcos have tried to do APIs alone — and failed five times before. This time, as several panelists agreed, feels different.

Collaboration, Not Competition

Mark Harvey, Chief Identity Officer at XConnect (following Sekura.id’s acquisition), described the evolution from “API spaghetti” to the current wave of standardization.

“It’s very rare to see competitors like us sitting side by side,” he said. “We’ve finally realized that no one can crack this on their own.”

Both Álvaro Navarro from Vonage and Andrés Burgoa from Aduna echoed this sentiment. Vonage represents the CPaaS and developer experience side, Aduna the aggregator layer connecting multiple operators. “Our job,” said Burgoa, “is to make the life of these gentlemen easier — aggregating APIs globally so they can focus on developer relations and enterprise solutions.”

He summarized Aduna’s role neatly: “We’re the piece of the puzzle that nobody knew was missing.”

From Promise to Reality

A year ago, network APIs were still a promise. Now, they’re live.

For Vonage, that means focusing on developer experience and coverage — ensuring APIs work seamlessly in multiple countries and can be tested easily. “Even if it’s fake data, give developers a playground,” said Navarro. “That’s how adoption grows.”

Aduna, meanwhile, is solving the scalability challenge. Instead of every CPaaS negotiating with dozens of operators, Aduna handles the coverage and compliance complexity once. “We want Alvaro and his peers to focus on building solutions — not chasing legal contracts,” Burgoa explained.

Kümmerle confirmed that wholesale aggregation now represents 80% of Deutsche Telekom’s API business, with examples like RTL and Associated Press using live video APIs for major events. “It’s no longer theory — it’s production,” he said.

Focus: The Word of the Day

If there was one word that united the panel, it was focus.

“There are 181 CAMARA APIs,” warned Harvey. “We can’t focus on 181 things. Let’s stop adding new ones and start generating revenue.”

He argued for shifting attention away from “developers” and toward product owners inside enterprises: “They’re the ones with the problems — developers just implement. Let’s listen to the product teams, not just publish APIs and hope someone uses them.”

Kümmerle agreed: “We expose everything we have, but that’s wrong. The customer has one question: is it fraud — yes or no? That’s what we should build for.”

Three to Five Years Ahead

The panel looked forward to 2030 projections — figures as high as $300 billion in annual API revenues. While most saw this as achievable, the message was clear: it won’t happen by itself.

Burgoa highlighted regional momentum, noting that Aduna recently hosted its first summit at AT&T’s Dallas HQ with Verizon, T-Mobile, and international carriers. “If you had told me three years ago that all three U.S. operators would sit together to talk about network APIs, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.

But he was also realistic: “We’re spending more time in small rooms than on stages, negotiating commercial, legal, and operational alignment. It’s slow, but it’s real.”

Challenges Still Ahead

As Žiga pushed the panel to name what’s not working, the mood turned refreshingly honest.

Burgoa admitted the story still needs to “propagate” deeper inside operators. “It’s still a niche layer at the top. We need the operational people to start executing, not just hearing the story.”

Kümmerle pointed to over-regulation in Europe as a drag on innovation: “Privacy and sovereignty are essential, but the balance is off. We need to talk with regulators about how to enable innovation without compromising trust.”

Harvey reminded the audience that progress is often invisible: “Just because it’s not in the news doesn’t mean it’s not happening. TikTok and Google deals are massive milestones. We should celebrate small wins.”

Takeaways: Building the Road Ahead

Focus on fewer, higher-value APIs. Fraud, identity, and authentication are clear starting points. Talk to product owners, not just developers. Solve real enterprise pain points. Simplify language and onboarding. Developer experience is still a major adoption barrier. Collaborate, don’t compete. Aggregation, trust, and shared standards are key. Engage regulators early. Privacy and innovation must evolve together.

In the end, the tone was pragmatic but hopeful.

“We’ve fallen off the bike five times,” Harvey said, smiling. “But this time, we’re pedaling forward — together.”

Want to help shape the future of network APIs?

Join the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance and contribute to our ongoing work on The State of CPaaS 2026 and Network API Roadmap — where we turn conversations like this one into collaborative action.

Panel moderated by Amy Cameron (STL Partners) with Sebastian Schumann (Deutsche Telekom), Colm Sunderland (Head of Hyperscale, Indirect & CPaaS, BT International), Wendhy Kusumaatmadja (VP Digital Initiative, Telin), and Ahmed Omer (VP EngageX, e& enterprise)

At CASA25, Amy Cameron of STL Partners led one of the most forward-looking panels of the event — “The Telco of the Future.” Featuring senior leaders from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the discussion explored how major operators are reshaping their networks, organizations, and business models to thrive in an AI-driven, platform-based world.

e& enterprise: Breaking Up to Speed Up

Ahmed Omer, VP of EngageX at e& enterprise, shared one of the boldest transformation stories in telecom. Once part of Etisalat’s legacy structure, e& enterprise now operates as an independent business with its own P&L — designed to move faster and innovate more freely.

“When you spin off a business, you take full accountability,” Omer explained. “It forces agility. You fail fast, learn, and move forward.”

Under his leadership, EngageX integrates the entire customer interaction journey — from marketing and CRM to CPaaS, contact center, and loyalty. That end-to-end approach allows e& enterprise to evolve from telco to full customer-experience provider.

Omer argued that future success depends on openness and collaboration:

“Telcos need to stop guarding margins and start sharing value across the ecosystem. You might give up margin now, but you gain magnitude later.”

He also highlighted E& Capital, the group’s venture arm, as a catalyst for non-organic growth — investing in startups, JVs, and acquisitions that complement the portfolio.

BT International: Building the Network for AI

Colm Sunderland, Head of Hyperscale, Indirect & CPaaS at BT International, described a transformation rooted in infrastructure and flexibility.

BT’s Global Fabric is a next-generation “any-to-any” platform built to deliver on-demand connectivity with sovereignty, security, and seamless integration.

“You can’t be a telco of the future if your services aren’t consumable,” Sunderland said. “The world expects on-demand, real-time capabilities — and the network has to match that.”

He envisions a world where bandwidth behaves like cloud capacity — elastic, intelligent, and dynamically priced. When Amy suggested “surge pricing for bandwidth,” Colm smiled:

“Exactly — like Ticketmaster or Uber. When demand spikes, capacity should reflect its real-time value.”

For Sunderland, digitization will ultimately define the future:

“It’s about giving customers a single digital pane of glass — low touch, high value, high speed.”

Deutsche Telekom: From Minutes to Meaning

Sebastian Schumann of Deutsche Telekom offered a wholesale-driven perspective. His team is developing a Digital Services Platform that unifies CPaaS, RBM, identity, and network APIs in one architecture.

“It’s not about selling APIs,” he said. “It’s about making what you already have consumable — in the way customers want to consume it.”

For Schumann, success means telcos moving beyond connectivity and participating directly in value creation:

“You don’t need to teach voice salespeople to sell APIs; you just make sure APIs are there when the customer needs them.”

Telin: Transformation Through People and Purpose

Representing Telin, the international arm of Telkom Indonesia, Wendhy Kusumaatmadja, VP Digital Initiative, brought an inspiring Southeast Asian perspective — one grounded in people and culture as much as technology.

“Innovation isn’t an instruction; it comes from people,” she said.

Telin’s transformation began by embedding agile culture across the company, empowering teams to act fast and work modularly. When asked to deliver a CPaaS platform in nine months, the team completed it in three — proof that transformation can be driven by mindset as much as tools.

“We start with what customers want and work backward,” Kusumaatmadja added. “We don’t want to fight alone — we want to be part of an ecosystem. It’s not competition; it’s co-opetition.”

Partners, Platforms & the Path Ahead

When Amy asked whether future growth would come from direct sales or through partners, the panel leaned decisively toward ecosystem collaboration.

Sunderland pointed to BT’s extensive global partner network; Omer described e&’s “partners of partners of partners” model; and Kusumaatmadja highlighted the value of learning through global alliances like TM Forum and MEF.

As Omer put it:

“Thirty years ago we built the towers. Now we need to build the ecosystems.”

What Will Drive Tomorrow’s Revenue?

Each speaker identified a different catalyst for growth:

• Wendhy Kusumaatmadja — Agentic AI: embedding intelligence in every customer interaction.
• Sebastian Schumann — Participation: moving up the value chain.
• Colm Sunderland — Digitization & orchestration: making everything consumable.
• Ahmed Omer — Moments: using AI to personalize every customer journey.

A New Identity for Telcos

Ultimately, the “telco of the future” is defined not by infrastructure but by mindset — shifting from control to collaboration, from services to experiences, and from networks to ecosystems.

As Amy Cameron concluded:

“It’s not just what you sell, but how you sell it — and how you connect people, partners, and possibilities along the way.”

At CASA25, a standout panel dove deep into one of the most critical—and least understood—aspects of the vCon revolution: how to handle consent, compliance, and data provenance in an AI-driven world.

Moderated by Thomas Howe of Strolid, the panel brought together a mix of perspectives from across the ecosystem: Jason Goecke (Creo Solutions), Nima Golchini (Enea), Tony Nuzzo (Approved Contact), and Ben Curtis and Dean Landsman from JLINC. Together, they explored how programmable trust and verifiable consent are becoming the new foundation of intelligent communications.

From Permissions to Provenance

Tony Nuzzo of Approved Contact opened with a simple but powerful premise: trust starts with permission.

His company’s new Permissions product lets brands validate consent explicitly — not just “we think they agreed,” but clear records of whether customers allow their voice to be used in AI, or whether they want to receive texts or calls.

“You want to be a trusted brand, not just a brand,” Tony said. “And the VCon gives you a way to prove that trust.”

By capturing this consent inside verifiable conversation data, VCons effectively become an insurance policy for brands — proof that engagement is both compliant and authentic.

Security First: Cleaning the Pipeline

Nima Golchini of Enea then connected the dots between consent and cybersecurity.

Enea provides messaging and signaling firewalls that filter spam, block malicious content, and enforce regional compliance rules across operators and CPaaS providers.

He explained how AI models now detect campaign drift — where a registered campaign sends unrelated content — and help enforce national codes of conduct, like France’s restriction on promotional messages during weekends.

“It’s about keeping a clean pipeline,” Nima said. “Security, compliance, and monetization all depend on it.”

JLINC: Proof That Data Stays True

The discussion moved to data provenance, where Ben Curtis and Dean Landsman from JLINC outlined how cryptographic signatures and zero-knowledge auditing can verify the flow of data without ever exposing its contents.

Ben explained how their system ensures that data shared between systems — for example, between AI models or CPaaS platforms — is traceable, trusted, and compliant with privacy regulations.

“We can prove that the data went where it was supposed to go, and came from who it was supposed to — without ever revealing the private data itself.”

Dean added that this capability turns compliance into something verifiable and automatic:

“From the moment data begins to the moment it ends, it still belongs to its originator. That’s the essence of trust under GDPR and every new data law to come.”

Smart Contracts for Consent

When Jason Goecke of Creo Solutions joined the exchange, he described VCons as the foundation for programmable compliance.

“It’s like a smart contract for communication,” he said. “Consent travels with the data itself. That gives you ownership, transparency, and interoperability — the foundation for trusted applications.”

VCons, in this view, turn consent into code — allowing businesses to automate trust, not just declare it.

The New CRM: Conversational and Consumer-Centric

Closing the panel, Dean Landsman reflected on how VCons could transform CRM systems.

Traditional CRMs were designed to collect and exploit data, not to protect it. The next generation, he said, will be conversational and consumer-centric — powered by verifiable, user-owned data.

“CRM hasn’t really had guardrails before. VCons bring them,” he said. “They ensure customer data stays their own — and make the system finally work for the customer.”

From Compliance to Confidence

The message from this CASA25 panel was clear: VCons aren’t just about storing conversations — they’re about redefining digital trust.

They turn compliance into a design principle, enable verifiable provenance for AI, and make consent portable across every layer of the communications stack.

As Thomas Howe closed the session, he summed up the mood perfectly:

“This isn’t about regulation slowing us down — it’s about trust becoming programmable.”

Insights from the CASA25 Panel Moderated by Matt Townend (Cavell)

At CASA25, one of the most anticipated discussions centered on vCons — the emerging standard for capturing, structuring, and sharing conversational data across platforms and channels. Moderated by Matt Townend of Cavell Group, the panel brought together four perspectives spanning the ecosystem:

Robert Galop, CTO of Creo Solutions (software and AI platform innovator) Jon Brinton, CRO of Crexendo (NetSapiens platform, powering 235 service providers) Sebastian Schumann, Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG) (building a sovereign CPaaS platform) Mark Ianozzi, CEO of Superior Contact (and longtime Cloud Communications Alliance leader)

Together they explored how vCons move from theory to impact — and where opinions diverged on the road ahead.

1. From Standard to Solutions

A recurring theme was the need to move beyond the technology itself. All panelists agreed that enterprises don’t buy “vCons” — they buy outcomes.

Robert Galop put it succinctly: early discussions focused on selling vCons as a concept, but “we’re quickly progressing to what we can build on top of them.”

Jon Brinton echoed the sentiment, warning against confusing customers with another acronym: “The last thing we should do is try and sell vCons. We should sell intelligent engagement.”

That closing phrase — intelligent engagement — became a shared reference point, linking this session back to the overarching CASA25 theme.

2. Use Cases: Where the Value Starts to Show

Robert Galop illustrated how some service providers are already deploying vCons to analyze every conversation, using AI to provide feedback loops that were previously impossible.

Example: a small business uses vCons to grade every call against a script, then gives front-desk employees instant coaching on what could have gone better — democratizing tools once reserved for enterprise contact centers.

Jon Brinton expanded this with two clear value drivers his partners are seeing:

Coaching at scale: moving from sampling a few calls to analyzing every conversation for agent improvement. Upsell optimization: correlating conversational data with sales outcomes to train staff on what drives higher transaction values.

Mark Ianozzi, speaking from his BPO perspective, emphasized data portability as another use case: enabling clients to migrate between contact-center platforms without losing historic conversational context. In his words, “the money is in the data,” and vCons turn that data into a transmittable asset.

3. The Telco Lens: From Minutes to Context

For Deutsche Telekom, vCons fit naturally into their sovereign CPaaS platform strategy.

Sebastian Schumann described how DTAG views vCons as an enabler for “contextual communication,” where a call is no longer just a call:

“A minute is a minute is a minute — but now minutes have different values.”

By embedding vCon capabilities into their platform, DTAG aims to transform legacy traffic into data-rich, AI-ready interactions. Schumann stressed that telcos won’t necessarily own the end-user layer, but can provide the trusted, compliant interface that others build upon — particularly important in regulated sectors like healthcare or government.

4. The Ecosystem Debate: Who Moves First?

Townend challenged the panel on whether there’s a race to claim ownership of the vCon layer — between telcos, CRM platforms, or communication vendors.

Jon Brinton acknowledged the urgency: those who “get out in front” and deliver tangible use cases early will likely control more of the data and value chain. Robert Galop agreed, describing a pragmatic path of launching simple, horizontal tools first to gain traction, before layering in vertical solutions that drive revenue growth.

Sebastian Schumann saw it differently: rather than a race for ownership, he envisioned a cooperative ecosystem, with telcos serving as the enablers providing trusted infrastructure and APIs, while innovators build the applications.

5. Vertical vs. Horizontal Paths

There was consensus that vertical specialization will emerge naturally.

Galop noted that quick-win, horizontal solutions help get telcos “in the door,” but real revenue growth comes from tailoring insights to industries — from healthcare compliance to automotive retail.

Brinton reinforced that many early adopters are already doing this: “They’re intimate with their customers’ workflows and building for specific problems, not platforms.”

6. Trust, Governance, and the Data Gold Rush

Mark Ianozzi brought the discussion full circle to AI governance and compliance. With regulators scrutinizing how AI uses data, vCons could become the audit trail of the AI era — a verifiable record of what was said, by whom, and when.

This sparked nods across the panel: vCons don’t just enable AI insights; they make AI accountable.

7. From Minutes to Meaning: The Road Ahead

As the session closed, Matt Townend asked the simplest but hardest question: Will we still be talking about vCons in five years — or just about better customer experiences?

The unanimous answer: outcomes over acronyms.

vCons will fade into the background as the invisible layer powering trusted, contextual engagement. Service providers who act early — building skills, partnerships, and initial use cases — will lead. Telcos that embed vCons into their infrastructure can finally turn their “minutes” into meaning.

🧭 The Next Step

CASA25 made clear that vCons are moving from concept to execution. But their real power lies in what comes next — an ecosystem of partners turning conversational data into trusted intelligence across industries.

If your organization is working on vCon use cases — whether in contact centers, telco platforms, or enterprise AI — the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance invites you to share your story and contribute to the evolving Case Directory. Together, we can turn this trillion-dollar idea into measurable impact.