Alianza and Vonage complete the CASA26 sponsor lineup — and two of our partners spent last week proving what the week is about.

The capability was never the problem. Coordination is. Six years of working groups, roundtables, partnerships and research keep pointing at the same finding — and CASA26 in Amsterdam is built to test it.

CASA26 belongs to the people in the room. Here’s how that works in practice — passes, partners, sponsorship, and the room itself.

I’ll be honest: I have the best job on the CASA26 team right now.

While the rest of the crew is buried in sponsor decks, budget spreadsheets, and speaker line-ups (huge respect — someone has to make the numbers work and get the class act talent on stage), I’ve been out on a bike, weaving through sunlit canals, on a mission of my own: finding the perfect spot for our social evening.

Because let’s be real — the sessions matter, the speakers matter, the sponsors matter. But everyone who’s been to a CASA event before knows where the real magic happens: the social evening. That’s where the hallway conversations turn into actual friendships. Where someone you just met over a cocktail becomes a collaborator, a mentor, or just a great story for next year.

So today’s “work” looked like this: cruising past centuries-old canal houses with their crooked gables and glinting reflections in the water, and checking out one of the city’s best hotspots for cocktails and food.

Good news on both fronts. I found our Monday social evening location — a club with exactly the right vibe: great drinks, great food, and just enough buzz to get people talking without drowning them out. And CASA26 itself? It’s landing at the Tobacco Theater — a stunning old building with a carved wooden door straight out of another century. One of those canal houses I passed along the way is still on the shortlist as a backup venue too.

And with that, the full social program is locked in: a canal boat tour with Sandbox and the startups on Sunday, followed by CAVE dinner for our key partners at Watergang, dinner and cocktails at TufTuf on Monday, drinks on Tuesday, and a special GSMA day on Wednesday. Every day has its own vibe, and I can’t wait for you all to experience it.

CASA26 is coming together beautifully, thanks to a team grinding through the unglamorous-but-essential stuff so the glamorous stuff (hi, that’s me) can shine. Genuinely — I love this job.

Third in a four-part series unpacking the pillars of CASA26.

In March, the GSMA Open Gateway initiative marked its third birthday at MWC Barcelona. The interesting thing wasn’t the milestone. It was the agenda. The headline sessions weren’t about new APIs or new standards — they were about monetisation, business outcomes, and what the programme itself now calls “the demand side.” Aduna’s CEO took the keynote on turning APIs into real-world impact. The closing panels were about which verticals will actually pay.

Read between the lines and the industry is quietly admitting something it spent three years avoiding: the APIs were never the hard part.

That is the real subject of CASA26’s third pillar — Network APIs and telecom transformation. And it’s the pillar where I’ll be most direct, because this is the conversation the industry most needs and most avoids.

The plumbing finally works

It’s worth being fair first. The technical progress is real. Open Gateway is into its third year. CAMARA has standardised a credible set of service APIs. GSMA and TM Forum have a joint conformance certification programme, so an API certified once is trusted across the ecosystem. Aduna — backed by Ericsson and a roster of major operators — has stood up a genuine aggregation layer so a developer doesn’t have to integrate operator by operator. The hyperscalers — AWS, Google Cloud, Azure — have put network APIs into their marketplaces. Vonage, now an Ericsson company, has gone further and built network APIs into the core of its platform rather than treating them as a side catalogue. XConnect has done the unglamorous work of making cross-operator reach actually function.

In other words, the excuse is gone. For years, “it’s still early, the standards aren’t ready” was a fair answer. It no longer is. The road has been built.

So here is the uncomfortable question, and it’s a commercial one, not a technical one: the network is now programmable — but is it profitable? Programmable is not the same as profitable. And the industry has been far better at the first than the second.

We counted the APIs. We forgot to ask what they’re worth.

The recurring failure of the Network API conversation is that it is conducted in the wrong units. We count APIs. We count operators onboarded. We count standards ratified and milestones hit. These are supply-side metrics, and the customer has never once asked how many APIs you have.

The questions that matter are the ones the industry is least comfortable with. What job does this get done, for whom? What does it replace, and is the replacement clearly better? What will someone actually pay, and on what commercial model — per call, per outcome, per seat, revenue share? Until those have answers, an API is a capability, not a business.

Some have already named the shift. Vonage’s Neelam Sandhu, newly into the CMO role, used her CASA25 keynote to reframe the company’s story from connectivity to outcomes — saying out loud the move this entire pillar is really about.

This isn’t pessimism. It’s the opposite. The good news is that the demand side is finally producing real answers — in one area especially.

Identity and fraud is the wedge

The clearest near-term business case for Network APIs is not a new experience. It’s the quiet replacement of a broken one. The one-time password sent by SMS is insecure, easily intercepted, and a genuinely poor experience — and it underpins authentication for half the digital economy. Network APIs like Silent Authentication, Number Verification and SIM Swap detection replace it with something the operator can verify at the network level, in milliseconds, without a code to type.

This is the killer app GSMA has been pointing at — the argument made memorably at CASA25 that digital identity, not connectivity, is the operator’s most valuable and most defensible asset. It now has a regulatory tailwind: age-verification laws tightening across the US, EU and Australia put operators in a position no pure software vendor can occupy, because the trust and the subscriber relationship already sit with them. Beyond identity, Quality-on-Demand — guaranteed network performance for drones, robotics, live broadcast and immersive applications — is the next vertical wave.

The opportunity isn’t only the operators’. It belongs equally to the players who turn raw network signals into something an enterprise can buy with confidence. Shush is a case in point — its Sherlock platform packages identity, trust and fraud capabilities into a product a security team can actually deploy, rather than a kit of APIs they’d have to assemble themselves. In partnership with Twilio, it has already put silent network authentication into production with carriers such as DITO — replacing the SMS one-time password with precisely the network-level verification described above. That packaging layer, where a network signal becomes a business outcome, is where a great deal of the value — and the margin — is going to settle.

Identity and fraud is where the abstract finally becomes commercial: a real pain, a clearly better fix, a buyer who is already regulated into needing it. That is what every other Network API use case has to learn from.

The disintermediation question nobody wants to ask

There is a strategic risk hiding inside all this progress. The aggregation layer that makes Network APIs usable — Aduna, the hyperscaler marketplaces, the channel partners — is also the layer that can stand between the operator and the customer. If operators become the wholesale supplier of capabilities that someone else packages, prices and owns the relationship for, they will have built the road and handed the tolls to someone else.

This is the real “telecom transformation” question, and it’s not technical. It’s about where in the value chain the operator chooses to compete. We heard the early version at CASA25, where the “telco of the future” panel — e&, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telin — circled exactly this tension between scale, partnership and control. The operators leaning hardest into Network APIs as a commercial discipline rather than a standards exercise — Orange and Vodafone among them, anchoring the Aduna model; BT building programmability into Global Fabric; the Asian operators like Telin treating it as a regional growth play — are the ones taking the question seriously. Whether they can move at the speed the opportunity demands is, as ever with telcos, the open question.

What CASA26 will do with this pillar

The Network API track at CASA26 is built to skip the milestone update and go straight to the commercial core:

• Which use cases actually have a buyer and a price — and which are still capabilities in search of a business?
• What pricing and commercial models survive contact with a real enterprise: per-call, per-outcome, revenue share?
• How do operators avoid being disintermediated by the very aggregators and hyperscalers that make the APIs usable?
• Is identity the wedge that finally makes the rest of the catalogue sellable?

These are analyst-led sessions with the operators, aggregators and platform players living the question — GSMA on the standards and identity story, the aggregation and channel players on distribution, and the operators on whether they can convert structural advantage into revenue before the window narrows.

This is also one of the CASA26 tracks open for a partner to help shape and lead. If your business depends on Network APIs becoming a market rather than a milestone, this is the room where that case gets argued honestly.

The network is finally programmable. Whether the industry programs it into a business — or watches someone else do it — is the only question that now matters.

Amsterdam. September 21–23. The next chapter starts now.

Next in the series: Innovation, Ecosystems & Real Outcomes — why the breakthroughs will come from ecosystems, not incumbents acting alone, and how CASA turns conversations into collaborations.

The Case Directory session at CASA25, moderated by CPaaS Acceleration Alliance’s research lead Andrew Collinson, brought together three sharp minds to explore how real-world examples can accelerate enterprise adoption of CPaaS, Network APIs, and Intelligent Engagement. Joining Andrew on stage were Amy Cameron (STL Partners), Robert Galop (Creo Solutions), and Hélène Vigue (GSMA). The conversation, while rooted in the Case Directory itself, became a much broader discussion about where enterprise demand really lies, what telcos are missing, and how partners can bridge the gap.

From Playbook to Case Directory

Andrew opened the session by introducing the Case Directory, a searchable repository of over 120 case studies drawn from the CPaaSAA Playbook, GSMA’s Open Gateway library, and other industry sources. The tool allows members to search use cases by industry, solution type, and business outcome, offering a fast way to see what’s working — from number verification APIs to customer engagement platforms.

“The idea,” Andrew explained, “wasn’t just to collect examples, but to make them useful — for inspiration, for learning, and maybe even as a sales enablement tool.”

He highlighted that most current case studies come from telecoms, finance, and technology, leaving whole sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, or agriculture largely untouched. That observation set the tone for the panel: if so much of the world’s economy depends on services and people, are we still focusing too narrowly on digital-native sectors?

“We’re Ignoring Half the World’s Workforce”

Robert Galop picked up on that point. Having worked across both enterprise IT and customer contact environments, he cautioned against over-focusing on digital-first industries.

“Two-thirds of global GDP comes from service businesses,” he reminded the audience. “Half the world’s workforce delivers services — yet most of our CPaaS use cases are still built for digital companies.”

For Robert, the next growth wave lies in bringing intelligent engagement to these under-served industries — those where people talk to people every day. “Automation and AI are great, but the real opportunity is in understanding conversations — capturing the voice of the customer through things like vCons (voice conversations in a standard format) — and using those insights to improve service quality and outcomes.”

Telcos Need to “Eat the Technology First”

Amy Cameron brought a healthy dose of realism from STL Partners’ enterprise research. Her assessment: enterprises may trust telcos, but they don’t see them as innovation partners yet.

“Enterprises usually put telcos fifth or sixth on their list of preferred digital transformation partners,” she said. “They see them as reliable, but not necessarily relevant.”

Her advice was simple but pointed: “Eat the technology first, then feed it to someone else.” Telcos, she argued, need to apply CPaaS and AI to their own operations — to improve how they engage with customers — before pitching those capabilities to enterprises. “They’re sitting on the data, the channels, and the customer base to do it better than anyone. They just don’t always use it.”

When it comes to enterprise demand, Amy sees a strong pull toward better connectivity, faster provisioning, and easier integration with IT systems — but not yet a rush toward telco-led transformation. She also noted that smaller, specialized service providers often outperform larger telcos because they act as consultants, packaging connectivity with practical solutions.

APIs Are Just Ingredients — Solutions Are the Dish

Hélène Vigue echoed that perspective from the GSMA side. “Enterprises don’t buy APIs,” she said. “They buy solutions to problems.”

Drawing on her experience with Mobile Identity and the Open Gateway initiative, she described how telcos are learning to embed APIs into real-world identity and security solutions. “In age assurance, fraud detection, or payment verification, mobile signals become part of a broader identity and access management solution,” she said. “That’s what enterprises want — not the API itself, but the problem solved.”

She noted that while early traction comes from financial services, demand is spreading across industries, from gig economy platforms verifying drivers to manufacturers ensuring trusted access to systems. The key, she emphasized, is partnerships: “Operators aren’t delivering these solutions alone. They rely on identity aggregators, security providers, and integrators to make it work.”

The Mid-Market Goldmine

The panel also converged on one overlooked segment: small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Robert shared a recent case where a five-location hotel chain didn’t even know why customers were calling — until CPaaS analytics showed clear patterns. “They just needed simple insights,” he said. “That’s where we can make the biggest impact fastest.”

Andrew agreed, recalling his own experience running an SME unit inside a telco: “Large enterprises are complex, slow, and bureaucratic. Mid-market companies move faster and buy faster — if you solve a clear problem.”

Cloud Thinking, Network Delivery

The conversation naturally returned to network APIs — and what developers actually want from them. Amy shared findings from STL’s developer research: “When we asked developers what they’d pay telcos for, the top answers were network performance visibility and on-demand control — exactly what they already get from their cloud environments.”

In other words, developers get the value of APIs; they just don’t yet see it coming from telcos. As Amy put it, “There’s latent demand. It’s not about teaching them what APIs are — it’s about making them easy, available, and consistent.”

Hélène agreed, pointing out that Open Gateway is starting to make that happen — especially in China, where API adoption is surging thanks to clear regulation and strong government backing.

Audience Insights: “Make It Easier to Find and Use”

An audience member captured a sentiment shared by many: It’s still too hard to know where to find these APIs or how to integrate them. Both Hélène and Robert agreed — developers don’t naturally go to GSMA websites to search for APIs. They discover them through partners like Infobip, Sinch, or others.

As Hélène said, “The partner ecosystem is the delivery mechanism. Next year, we’ll put even more focus on making access and integration easier.”

Where Would You Invest?

Andrew closed the session with a playful but revealing challenge: If you had a pot of money to invest in telecom innovation, where would you put it?

Hélène chose age assurance — a hot, regulation-driven use case where identity APIs can deliver real social value. Robert naturally backed vCons — not just for analytics, but as the foundation for smarter automation and customer intelligence. Amy combined both ideas, saying she’d build a cybersecurity solution for small businesses that wraps these technologies into something simple, trusted, and easy to bundle with connectivity.

Takeaway: From Examples to Execution

The Case Directory is more than a library of success stories — it’s a mirror of where the industry stands. As the panel made clear, enterprises want simplicity, trust, and outcomes, not just APIs.

The challenge for telcos and CPaaS providers is to turn those case studies into living examples — solving real problems for real businesses, from financial fraud to age assurance to service automation.

Or, as Andrew summarized offstage later: “The magic isn’t in the number of APIs. It’s in how we use them to make businesses — and people — work better.”

Get Involved — Help Grow the Case Directory

The Case Directory is being released to CPaaSAA members as a shared resource to accelerate learning, collaboration, and innovation across the ecosystem.

If you’d like to contribute a case study, test the tool, or help expand coverage into new industries, reach out to andrew@cpaasaa.com or contact the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance team.

Your example might be the next one that helps the whole industry move forward.

“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

That decades-old meme still holds power—and in some ways, it’s the root problem of digital trust today. At CASA25, Helene Vigue, Identity and Data Director at GSMA, took the stage to talk about how telcos, through initiatives like GSMA Open Gateway, are finally in a position to help solve that problem at scale.

This isn’t about flashy new technology. It’s about enabling real-world trust in a digital world—and it’s where network APIs and mobile identity become not just relevant, but essential.

A World of Identities—and a Crisis of Trust

In a compelling, no-nonsense keynote, Helene walked us through a simple but powerful idea: your phone is the bridge between your physical self and your digital footprint.

“Mobile identity leverages this connection to enable businesses to securely verify customer identities—with minimal friction.”

Why does this matter? Because fraud is exploding. Scams and data breaches are growing faster than digital payments. And as AI evolves, it enables not only better customer service—but also faster, cheaper, scalable fraud attacks.

Meanwhile, regulators are responding with age assurance mandates, stronger compliance rules, and increasing scrutiny on platforms. Enterprises are stuck in the middle—trying to protect users while keeping the customer experience smooth.

This is where telcos come in. By exposing network APIs, they can deliver trusted signals directly from the source—such as SIM swap detection, number verification, and next-gen authentication.

From SMS OTP to Seamless Authentication

For years, we relied on SMS one-time passwords (OTP) to verify identities. But between rising costs, phishing attacks, and poor UX, the industry has outgrown that solution.

Operators are now offering seamless, passwordless authentication, enabled directly via the network. It’s faster (up to 2x), has better completion rates (up to +20%), and is more secure.

Helene highlighted examples like:

• Lydia (Banking) – Using mobile authentication to reduce fraud and total cost of ownership
• Ride-hailing & entertainment platforms – Focusing on speed and user experience
• Telkomsel (Operator) – Pivoting away from legacy A2P SMS by launching number verification APIs to win back enterprise trust

Identity APIs in Action: Fraud Prevention That Works

In Argentina, SIM swap fraud had become a major issue. Local operators responded by tightening internal security and launching a shared SIM swap API—used heavily by banks and payment providers.

A standout example: Movipay, which powers public transport payments. They were suffering from high levels of chargeback fraud, where criminals hijacked accounts, loaded funds, then reclaimed them. By implementing SIM swap monitoring, Movipay reduced this fraud by 80% in six months—while cutting manual review processes significantly.

This is what network APIs should be about: real outcomes, not just tech specs.

Why Partners Are the Missing Link

Helene didn’t sugarcoat the challenges. When asked what has disappointed her most in the Open Gateway initiative, she responded bluntly:

“We are too slow. That’s not a disappointment—that’s expected when you work with operators. What is disappointing is that new markets don’t learn fast enough from others… especially the critical role of partners.”

Too many telcos still try to go it alone. But the winners—those showing real traction—work closely with partners like:

Identity aggregators (combining mobile identity with broader identity stacks) CPaaS providers (scaling APIs across networks) System integrators (embedding identity into enterprise workflows)

Without this ecosystem, even the best APIs will fail to deliver value.

Mobile Identity as the Foundation for Digital Trust

Helene shared a full identity journey—from account creation to authentication, transaction security, and account management—showing where mobile signals can add trust at every stage.

From checking a number’s validity at sign-up, to monitoring SIM swap risk during transactions, to verifying ownership before allowing changes to an account—the network knows. And now, through Open Gateway, that knowledge can be safely shared with enterprises and platforms that need it.

An Open Call to Action

Helene closed with a clear message:

“If you haven’t yet joined the Open Gateway initiative, we really encourage you to do so.”

With over 100 networks launched, 200 APIs certified, and 80% of global connections represented, Open Gateway is more than a promise—it’s a movement.

But to reach full impact, it needs more partners, more adoption, and more success stories.

Final Thought: Telcos, Don’t Waste the Opportunity

Identity might just be the killer app for network APIs.

It delivers compliance, reduces fraud, improves UX, and lowers costs—all while aligning perfectly with telcos’ core strengths: trust, ubiquity, and infrastructure.

But only if they act boldly, partner smartly, and learn from each other.

Because in a world where nobody knows you’re a dog on the internet… mobile identity might just be our best leash on truth.

Recommended Next Step:

👉 Download the Mobile Identity Report from GSMA (if you haven’t already)

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.