How Radisys & Goshawk Are Bringing Purpose to Telco Innovation

At CASA25, one of the most powerful moments came not from a flashy AI demo or a multi-million-dollar partnership, but from a simple, deeply human story: how a phone call can reconnect people who have been quietly excluded.

Nicolai Schaettgen (Match-Maker Ventures) sat down with Ralph Page (Radisys) and Ian Buxton (Goshawk) to talk about Engage Clarity—a solution built for the one in five people currently affected by hearing loss. That number is set to rise to one in four by 2050. But this wasn’t a story about technology alone. It was about impact, dignity, and connection.

🔊 The Problem: Everyone Deserves to Be Heard—and to Hear Clearly

Imagine this: you’re 80 years old, trying to talk to your doctor. But the phone call doesn’t make sense. It’s muffled. It’s exhausting. So you stop calling. Maybe you even stop getting your prescriptions.

That’s exactly what happened to Ralph’s father.

“He’d say, ‘I can’t hear anything on this stupid phone’,” Ralph recalled. “It wasn’t his fault. It was the phone’s fault.” Eventually, he stopped speaking to the triage nurse and delayed renewing his medicine—because he couldn’t understand the conversation.

This is the real-world cost of hearing loss in a world that still treats phone calls as one-size-fits-all. And it’s just the beginning.

👂 Hearing Loss Is a Spectrum — And So Are the Challenges

You don’t need to wear a hearing aid to have trouble hearing. Hearing issues range from mild and undiagnosed to severe and treated with cochlear implants. And even with hearing aids, which can be expensive, conversations—especially over the phone—can be frustrating and tiring.

As Ian Buxton shared, “My wife has Ménière’s disorder. Even with hearing aids, she struggles. I can ask for the butter at breakfast, and she hears ‘putter.’ It’s not about loudness—it’s about clarity.”

And when clarity is missing, it doesn’t just affect understanding—it affects memory, confidence, and impacts human connection.

🌐 The Solution: Engage Clarity, Delivered Through the Network

Goshawk’s application was built to tackle this head-on. It starts with a 3-minute web-based hearing test, developed with Cambridge and Manchester Universities. This creates a unique audio profile—a fingerprint of how you hear.

Then comes the magic.

Radisys’ Engage Clarity solution applies that profile to your phone calls in real time. Clarity uses network-based processing—with more compute power and intelligence than any device.

The result? Voice calls that are customised to your hearing, not just louder.

So how does it work?

The user takes the 3-minute test on a telco-branded portal. A flag is set in the operator’s system. All calls are routed through Radisys’ media resource function (MRF). Clarity enhances the voice stream according to the hearing profile. The call is delivered—just clearer.

“It’s as simple as routing a value-added service,” Ralph explained. “The only hard part? Getting the telco website updated so users can sign up!”

🤝 Why Radisys?

Radisys isn’t just another CPaaS vendor. Their Engage Digital Platform is embedded in over 70% of telco IMS networks. That means they can manipulate the media directly inside the operator’s infrastructure—with regulatory compliance and native call handling already in place.

💡 Telcos, Take Note: This Is Inclusion and Innovation

Some operators ask, “How much can I charge for this?” Others see it as a feature for accessibility or wellness packages—bundled with fraud prevention or wellness services.

Either way, Clarity drives both differentiation and inclusion.

As Ralph said, “If I tell my dad this will cost £5 a month and he’ll finally be able to use his phone again, he’ll say yes without hesitation. The real blocker isn’t the customer—it’s whether the operator wants to charge for it.”

And beyond consumers, the enterprise use cases are compelling:

Contact centres: Improve agent hearing clarity, especially for older workers.

Employee wellness: Help staff with hearing challenges stay connected and productive.

Banking & retail: Keep experienced customer-facing employees after sudden hearing loss.

“This isn’t just a disability fix,” Ian added. “It’s about keeping people engaged—at work, with family, with life.”

🧪 Proof It Works: Clinical Trials & Real-World Results

Engage Clarity isn’t just a good idea—it’s a validated solution. Trials conducted with the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing showed significant improvement in comprehension across mild, moderate, and severe hearing loss categories.

Additional clinical work with university partners backs up its effectiveness—and showcases how telco infrastructure can be used for real impact.

🫂 A Telco That Connects Everyone

Ian closed with a reminder of why this all matters:

“A telco is about connecting people. Sharing information. Sharing love. And if that’s broken—if people quietly stop using the service—then we’ve failed. But if we can fix that? We’ve done something truly meaningful.”

✅ Ready to Launch

Engage Clarity is telco-grade, clinically proven, and easy to deploy. And with Radisys expertise in media handling, it’s already integrated into the heart of the telco network.

All that’s needed now is the will to act.

Whether you’re a telco executive, enterprise leader, or policymaker—the opportunity is clear. Let’s stop leaving people behind.

🔗 Get Involved

Radisys and Goshawk Communications are actively seeking operator partners and enterprise allies to scale Engage Clarity across regions and platforms!