At CASA25, Mike Mills, Managing Director for Service Providers at Gamma, took the stage with one clear message: Voice isn’t dead—it’s booming. And if you’re serious about intelligent engagement, customer experience, or real CPaaS revenue, you can’t afford to ignore it.

Gamma doesn’t just talk about voice—they carry over 1.6 billion voice minutes a month into cloud platforms, work with 80% of Gartner Magic Quadrant CPaaS vendors, and deliver services in 50+ countries. With a 15-year track record of powering everything from SIP trunking to modern CX platforms, Gamma is a partner that knows the market—and the regulatory maze—better than most.

The Gamma Lens: CPaaS Is at an Inflection Point

Mike offered a brutally honest assessment: compliance, fraud, and market complexity are getting worse—but the opportunity is only getting bigger. With CPaaS still seeing 11% CAGR growth even in worst-case forecasts (versus ~2% in traditional telco), the fundamentals are strong.

The big challenge? Most CPaaS players are either messaging-first or voice-first—rarely both. That leaves a major opportunity for those who can unify channels, deliver customer outcomes, and scale across borders.

3 Real-World Use Cases That Deliver Results

Let’s cut through the hype. These aren’t concepts—they’re hard business cases showing how Gamma helps CPaaS providers grow revenue, reduce compliance costs, and go to market faster.

1. Localization at Scale – 93% Revenue Growth

A global CPaaS provider needed to win big in the UK. Gamma helped them localize fully—from regulatory compliance to infrastructure—without downtime.

• Results: 93% revenue growth in 2 years
• Over 120,000 concurrent channels
• 150 million+ minutes per month—in a single geography

Lesson: Want to win globally? Deliver locally.

2. Global Reach, Zero Compliance Headaches

Another CPaaS player wanted to expand fast—30 countries, no compliance risk, and minimal operational overhead.

• Solution: Gamma’s unique regulatory contracting model, where Gamma takes on the local regulatory burden
• Results: $250K in annualized compliance cost savings
• Fully compliant, risk-free operations
• Enabled rapid global expansion without hiring local teams

Lesson: Focus on your platform and growth. Let Gamma handle the telco headaches.

3. Monetizing CPaaS + UCaaS for the End Customer

This one’s a game changer. A CPaaS vendor and their partner needed to integrate their platform with a UCaaS solution across multiple countries—seamlessly.

• Solution: Gamma helped package, deploy, and support the integrated offer
• Results: $350K in additional revenue 1,100 users migrated from legacy systems
• Deployed across 8 countries
• Full integration with existing infrastructure

Lesson: Bridging CPaaS, UCaaS, and customer infrastructure isn’t just possible—it’s profitable.

Strategic Focus: Voice, AI & Regulation

Gamma is investing £10 million over 5 years into supporting CPaaS partners. Why?

• Voice remains the #1 channel for real-time customer experience. Whether it’s a frustrated airline passenger or your in-laws still clinging to TDM, voice matters.
• AI is accelerating voice growth, not replacing it. 60% of Gamma’s recent growth came from CPaaS or CX platforms—often driven by AI-assisted workflows.
• Compliance is complex and costly—but also a competitive differentiator. Gamma builds solutions that enterprise customers trust.

As Mike said:

“If it’s not good enough to put a large enterprise on it, we generally don’t want to do it.”

Gamma’s View on Global Strategy: Local First, Telco-Grade Always

Gamma’s recent acquisitions—PlayTell, Starface, and others—show a calculated expansion into cloud-friendly and high-growth regions like Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. Their strategy is clear:

• Run the core network at scale
• Offer enablement layers to CPaaS players
• Adapt go-to-market locally
• Win either at the application, enablement, or network layer

Final Word: Voice Is the New Growth Engine

Gamma doesn’t see voice as legacy—it sees it as the foundation of modern, intelligent engagement. With real use cases, global reach, and a deep understanding of compliance and scale, Gamma is doubling down on helping CPaaS players succeed.

“It’s complicated. It’s getting more complex. But it’s not going anywhere.”

At CASA25, that’s not just a trend. It’s a strategy—and one Gamma is clearly ready to lead.

Insights from Gamma, Sandbox Industries, and Intel at CASA25

When you put a telco CEO, a venture capitalist, and a technology investor on the same stage and ask them to “fix telco innovation,” you don’t expect consensus.

At CASA25, Nicolai Schaettgen (Match-Maker Ventures) did just that—casting Mike Mills (Gamma) as the telco CEO, Dan Phillips (Sandbox Industries) as the corporate shareholder, and Mark Castleman (Intel) as the tech and investment veteran.

The result was an unfiltered reality check on why innovation in communications keeps stalling—and what needs to change.

1. The innovation illusion

Telcos, Mills admitted, know where they want to go—but can’t always find how to get there.

“We know our strategy. We know the direction. What’s missing is finding capabilities that aren’t mainstream—investing where one plus one can become three.”

For years, telcos have poured money into “innovation” through corporate venture capital (CVC) arms, incubators, and R&D labs. But the hit rate is abysmal.

Why? Because most telcos still apply improvement logic to innovation problems.

2. You can’t get ice cream from a meat grinder

Castleman, who’s raised hundreds of millions as a founder and investor, put it bluntly:

“Large systems like telcos are designed to improve what they do, not to deviate. Every output is the perfect output of that system. If you want something different, you need a different system.”

Innovation, he argued, means deviation, not optimization. You can’t expect a compliance-driven, quarterly-report-focused machine to suddenly start taking moonshots.

“You can’t put ice cream ingredients into a meat grinder and expect ice cream,” he joked. “You need a different system.”

The reason most corporate venture units fail is because they’re still tethered to the parent company’s antibodies—its incentives, KPIs, and politics.

3. Why telco CVCs don’t work

When Schaettgen asked who would still set up a corporate venture fund, none of the panelists raised a hand.

Castleman:

“If I’m not in the business of making bets, how am I suddenly going to succeed at venture investing? Better to put that capital into professional funds that already have access, insight, and deal flow.”

In other words, invest in the investors.

Don’t pretend to be one.

For telcos, the goal isn’t financial return—it’s access to innovation.

That access can be achieved far more effectively by becoming a limited partner (LP) in specialized funds or joining curated ecosystems—like the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance—where visibility, not ownership, creates advantage.

4. What shareholders actually want

Phillips, representing the shareholder view, described the telco dilemma succinctly:

“My focus is growth and margin. My frustration is that telcos build the infrastructure, but others capture the 90 percent gross margins and giant exits.”

To many investors, telcos look like annuities—slow-growth, dividend-paying utilities.

When those companies start putting cash into “high-risk, low-promise” innovation bets, shareholders see it as their dividend being spent.

The smarter play?

Spread smaller investments across a wider ecosystem. Gain visibility into innovation rather than trying to control it.

“What you really want is clarity so you can reduce your five-year risk horizon,” Castleman said. “Spread visibility of access—not ownership.”

5. What it takes to absorb innovation

Even if telcos partner with external innovators, success depends on internal readiness.

Phillips warned that without structure and leadership commitment, innovation dies in the middle:

“There needs to be organizational buy-in from the CEO down, and a process for working with startups—or scaleups. Otherwise, things stall after a few pilots.”

That means:

Dedicated processes for contracting and onboarding smaller partners (not the same RFP that takes three years for a core system). Clear KPIs for pilots—defined outcomes, time limits, and ownership. Different language—talk about scaleups and tech partners, not startups. The word alone is a red flag in boardrooms.

Mills agreed:

“The clash between telcos’ need for scale and compliance and a startup’s need for speed is very real. Managing that cultural challenge is hard—but necessary.”

6. Startups: grow up

The other half of the problem lies with the innovators themselves.

Castleman reminded founders that working with a telco isn’t a playground—it’s mission-critical infrastructure.

“If your network goes down for minutes, you can calculate churn by the minute. Startups need to stop acting like startups and start acting like grown-ups.”

Innovation doesn’t mean chaos. The goal isn’t to stay a startup forever—it’s to mature fast enough to meet enterprise-grade standards.

As he quipped:

“A six-year-old startup is a startup that’s been failing for four years.”

7. The CPaaS angle: sell outcomes, not features

Finally, the conversation turned to the CPaaS perspective.

Castleman reframed how platform players should approach telcos:

“If I’m a CPaaS player, I’m going to go to the telco CEO and say: I understand your outcome. I’ll help you achieve that with X percent more growth. Let’s define it together and hold me accountable.”

This is the opposite of a typical tech pitch—no laundry list of APIs, no “400 tools to help you do more.”

It’s co-creation around measurable outcomes.

And it’s exactly how intelligent engagement and network-API ecosystems need to evolve.

8. The CASA25 takeaway: change the system

Schaettgen closed the session by thanking the panel for the candid discussion—and for playing along with his “role-play therapy for telcos.”

The verdict was unanimous:

Stop building CVCs that mimic VCs but operate like procurement departments. Invest in visibility through specialized funds and innovation alliances. Build internal processes that can actually absorb external innovation. Speak the right language—scaleups, not startups; outcomes, not ideas. Remember: innovation isn’t about tweaking the machine. It’s about building a new one.

Epilogue: From CASA25 to CASA26

The conversation at CASA25 echoed a growing truth across the industry: the future belongs to ecosystems that can learn faster than any single company can innovate alone.

As capital, cloud, and communications continue to converge, the winners will be those who stop guarding the gate—and start opening it.

The energy around CASA25 keeps building—and we’re excited to share that Vonage has just signed on as a sponsor! A true heavyweight in the communications space, Vonage brings the power of Ericsson and a sharp focus on Network APIs, AI, and enterprise enablement.

Their support signals something bigger: CASA25 is becoming the go-to gathering for those shaping the future of programmable communications.

And they’re in good company.

🌟 CASA25 Sponsors (to date)

• Vonage – One of the industry’s most recognized names, with deep expertise in CPaaS and network APIs.
• Gamma – A European leader in UCaaS and cloud communications, focused on next-gen collaboration.
• Crexendo – North American UCaaS/CCaaS innovator with enterprise-ready solutions.
• McKinsey & Company – Strategic powerhouse helping define the telecom and AI landscape.
• Infobip – Global platform helping enterprises and telcos drive customer engagement.
• Radisys – Pioneering open telecom solutions and programmable infrastructure.
• GSMA – Industry-wide champion of Open Gateway and network API adoption.
• Sinch – Cloud communications leader enabling personalized customer experiences.
• 2600Hz (an Ooma company) – Empowering service providers with open, modular voice platforms.
• KPN – Dutch telco leaning into network innovation and open collaboration.
• CM.com – Messaging and payments platform bridging customer experience and communication.

🔥 Why It Matters

These sponsors represent the full ecosystem—from infrastructure and platforms to consulting and customer experience. Together, they’re not just supporting an event—they’re committing to a new phase of collaboration, innovation, and real-world execution in CPaaS, AI, and telecom.

🧭 What to Expect at CASA25

Visionary Keynotes – Hear from the leaders defining what’s next in communications, APIs, and AI. Workshops That Build – Leave the slide decks behind—these are hands-on sessions for co-creation and strategy. Real Conversations – No sales fluff, just direct, practical dialogue between insiders.

CASA25 is where the future of communications takes shape—and with partners like Vonage joining, the momentum is undeniable.

Let’s build what’s next. Together.

The countdown to CASA25 has officially begun—and we’re excited to share the first wave of confirmed sponsors and speakers helping us kick things off.

We’re proud to welcome Gamma, Twilio, McKinsey, Radisys, GSMA and Five9 as our first sponsors. It’s a powerful mix of innovation, strategy, and global influence—and it sets the tone for what CASA25 is all about: creating real impact in a fast-changing communications landscape.

From advanced cloud communications to strategic insight and telco transformation, these sponsors aren’t just backing the event—they’re shaping the future of CPaaS, network APIs, and AI-driven engagement.

Speakers

And to match that energy, we’re also confirming our first four speakers:

• Mike Mills – MD Service Providers at Gamma
• Hélène Vigue – Identity & Data Director at GSMA
• Al Balasco – SVP Communication Solutions at Radisys
• Ferry Grijpink – partner at McKinsey, specializing in Network APIs and ethical AI

Expect sharp insights, bold ideas, and fresh perspectives from these industry leaders. Each of them brings a unique angle to the CASA25 themes, including agentic AI, go-to-market evolution, programmable networks, and intelligent engagement.

This is just the beginning. More speakers and sponsors will be announced in the coming weeks, but if this early lineup is any indication, CASA25 is going to be unlike anything we’ve done before.

We’ll be back soon with more updates—including how to join, participate, or bring your team.