ROCCO RADIO

Well Connected is the podcast from ROCCO RADIO where we link up with the brightest minds and influential leaders in the telecom industry. Today, we're thrilled to bring you an inspiring conversation with Asha Mary Thomas, a trailblazer in the world of commercial roaming and a celebrated figure in the Rocco 100 Top Five Leaders. Join us as we delve into her journey—spanning two decades of innovation, persistence, and leadership. From the lessons of her early life to her groundbreaking achievements at e&, Asha shares how she’s reshaped not just her career but also the lives of others around her. Stay tuned for a narrative of resilience, innovation, and the personal side of Asha’s telecom leadership story.

In this BIG Interview by ROCCO Radio. Jason Bryan dives into the world of telecom fraud and security with Piotr Szymański, Founder and Managing Director at Jtendo. Piotr is an expert in fraud prevention, with years of experience tackling issues like CLI spoofing, deepfake fraud, and the evolving threats in telecom networks. In this episode, we'll explore the role of international consortiums, the latest advancements in fraud detection using AI, and how these technologies are protecting telecom operators and their subscribers from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Get ready for an insightful conversation on the cutting edge of telecom security.

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Eureka Podcast by ROCCO Radio. Today we're thrilled to be joined by Eva Heinze Gildum, Managing Director of Yaana Solutions, a leader in telecom data analytics. Eva has spent her career navigating the telecom industry, from the early days of roaming to cutting-edge AI-driven financial management solutions. In today’s conversation, we'll dive deep into the evolution of roaming technologies, the challenges and innovations in wholesale financial management, and how Yaana is using AI to streamline processes and boost efficiency. You won’t want to miss this insightful discussion!

Our CEO had the pleasure of talking again to Alan Murphy now with VOX Solutions. In this podcast you can discover the future of communication technology with Alan Murphy, VP of Engineering at Vox Solutions. Having spent over two decades at the forefront of telecom innovation, specialising in messaging, roaming, and security products, Alan delves into the advancements of SMS technology, flash calls and the cutting-edge world of Machine Learning and AI, in an exclusive podcast interview with Jason Bryan, Founder & CEO at ROCCO Research. Learn more on how SMS monetisation practices better impact marginalized communities or individuals with limited access to digital resources and what role can artificial intelligence and machine learning play in optimizing SMS monetization strategies.

ROCCO is excited to share our latest Eureka Podcast episode, where our CEO, Jason Bryan, engages in a discussion with Mehdi Triki, VP of Sales and Marketing and Co-founder of RoamSmart. Dive into the details of SteerOp, the steering optimizer solution from RoamSmart awarded as the top 3 solution in The Innovators 2023. Delve deeper into understanding how this solution operates and integrates into the Unified Roaming Platform, designed to establish a comprehensive view of the roaming business and facilitate the monetisation of existing data sources for MNOs. Discover this year's plans for RoamSmart with a clear focus on creating automations, API integrations, and providing insightful analytics for roaming teams to make better decisions. Tune in to discover more about SteerOp and RoamSmart's plans for 2024!

ROCCO is thrilled to unveil our latest Eureka podcast episode, where our CEO, Jason Bryan, sits down with two brilliant minds at Cellusys - Peter Morgan, Head of Technical Pre-Sales, and Chris Lennartz, VP of Product. Together, they delve into the heart of the SMS messaging industry, sharing their remarkable journey and unveiling their revolutionary solution, SMASH awarded as the top 1 solution in the Genesis Messaging Hackathon 2023. In this captivating episode, Peter and Chris share their insights on tackling the industry's pressing challenge: Artificial Traffic Inflation. They introduce SMASH, an ingenious system designed to verify message delivery, ensuring transparency, trust, and reliability in A2P SMS messaging. Tune in to the full podcast episode and gain deep insights into the SMS messaging landscape. Prepare to be inspired as Peter and Chris unravel the limitless possibilities of digital transformation in communication technologies. #Innovation #SMSMessaging #Cellusys #ArtificialInflationofTraffic

In this engaging Eureka podcast, our CEO Jason Bryan caught up with Mauro Mele, the Director of Clearing Services at Comfone, to dive deep into their innovative solution ePayments, awarded as the top 1 solution in The Innovators 2023! Mauro shared the inspiring journey behind ePayments, a game-changing solution for the Financial Clearing landscape. The innovative spirit at Comfone was instrumental in crafting a solution that simplifies the payment process, ensuring real-time control without the constraints of traditional payment cycles. The achievement doesn't stop here. Comfone's win signifies a leap towards a more innovative future for the telecom industry. As we celebrate this success, we encourage all innovators out there to join The Innovators 2024 and showcase your cutting-edge solutions, register now by sending an email to [email protected]. The industry is ripe for evolution, and your innovation could be the next game-changer! To learn more about ePayments and Comfone's pioneering solutions, listen to the full interview here: #Comfone #TheInnovators #RoamingRevolution

In this Eureka podcast episode, our CEO Jason Bryan had the pleasure of discussing innovation with Brian Beach, Senior Product Director at Syniverse. Dive in to learn about Syniverse's groundbreaking solution, Evolved Mobility, awarded as the top 2 solution in The Innovators 2023. Evolved Mobility is bridging the gap as networks transition to 5G. If you're inspired by Syniverse's success and have innovative solutions to showcase, don't miss the chance to participate in The Innovators 2024! To register, write to [email protected]. Tune in to learn more about Syniverse's Evolved Mobility solution!

ROCCO is thrilled to share an inspiring conversation between our CEO Jason Bryan, Daniel McTague, CTO, and Charles Bernard, Product Manager at Cellusys, on our recent Eureka podcast episode. They shared their incredible journey at the Genesis Hackathon, where their innovation, Roambot, took the roaming industry by storm. Roambot, a groundbreaking solution automating roaming testing processes, emerged victorious in the Roaming Genesis Hackathon. Daniel and Charles beautifully articulated their experience, highlighting the industry's need for digital transformation and the power of collaborative innovation. In the ever-evolving landscape of telecommunications, embracing automation and flexibility is paramount. Roambot represents a significant step towards a future where efficiency meets innovation. I urge everyone to listen to the full podcast to gain insights into the future of the industry and the limitless possibilities of digital transformation. Kudos to Cellusys for their exceptional work! Let's continue to push boundaries and redefine the future of roaming together.

Recorded at the end of 2022. In this Well connected podcast we interview Nermeen Sobhy, Vice president Carrier Relations at Cequens. Nermeen was voted the most influential woman in the ROCCO 100 2022. So naturally we wanted to know more about her and her story. In her podcast Nermeen talks about the challenges she faced being a woman in the world of telecoms engineering, her career in Egyptian mobile operators and her new role in Cequens. as well as giving some great advice for people who may feel like they need a push to move to the next level in their careers.

A great interview with Anurag Aggarwal the No #1 person in this years ROCCO 100 Research. In his interview Anurag talks about his career in Tata and Tanla, about Blockchain and the future of messaging. This is an inspiring podcast in which we learn a lot about Anurag approached each step of his journey.

On this Well Connected show I speak with STEPHANIE FLEURY, TV Host for CNN Brasil. I first met Stephanie about 15 years ago while she was working for Mobile operators like TIM, Oi, and Digicel Group, we worked together on global telecoms standards and it was always so interesting to hear her point of view. But it was with a lot of passion and entrepreneurial spirit, that Stéphanie then became CEO and founder of the digital account DinDin, which was in 2020 incorporated by Bitz/Bradesco, making her the first woman to sell a startup to a bank in Latin America. I was therefore really grateful that she accepted to be a ROCCO IOO judge this year and share with me some of her wisdom about Fintech, women in tech and her methodology on doing business in the digital age

In 2020 ROCCO announced the 100 most influential people in the telecoms industry following a 6 month period of research. We asked the industry to nominate the most influential people in the sector, we asked them to tell us why they were nominating them and to describe what they felt were the characteristics of influential people. The results were incredible to see, we received 1000s of nominations for around 150 candidates from across every region of the world, we didn’t want to recognise the most powerful or senior people in the industry, we weren’t looking only to recognise CEOs, this was about people in all kinds of roles at all levels, who develop and change our industry for the better. Anyone can influence the industry if they desire to; anyone can make a difference. Following a review by our judging panel we presented the 100 ranking at our annual Genesis event in May 2020. We didn’t show the ranking of the top 25 people because we were planning on presenting awards to them in person. However, that became just impossible to do. So before we start on our research for ROCCO 100 2022 we wanted to take the time to recognise, the overall ranking of the top 25 for 2020. It’s with great pleasure that we reveal that the number one person in the ROCCO 100 for 2020 was Wangeci Kanjama from M-Pesa.

Welcome to The Slice, a series of podcasts dedicated to the industries biggest trends. On this show our CEO Jason Bryan speaks with Henning Lagerbielke, Director, BSS at Enghouse Networks. Following the recent developments by the GSMA in creating the Billing and Charging Evolution, we wanted to get some fresh thinking on what BCE really means for the roaming business. As we know, producing new standards is one thing, but getting them established is a much bigger challenge. With the help of Henning from Enghouse, Jason had the chance to ask the big questions on what BCE really means for the industry and most importantly what’s its potential. In Part 3 we make some conclusions on the next steps for BCE. www.enghousenetworks.com

Welcome to The Slice, a series of podcasts dedicated to the industries biggest trends. On this show our CEO Jason Bryan speaks with Henning Lagerbielke, Director, BSS at Enghouse Networks. Following the recent developments by the GSMA in creating the Billing and Charging Evolution, we wanted to get some fresh thinking on what BCE really means for the roaming business. As we know, producing new standards is one thing, but getting them established is a much bigger challenge. With the help of Henning from Enghouse, Jason had the chance to ask the big questions on what BCE really means for the industry and most importantly what’s its potential. www.enghousenetworks.com

Welcome to The Slice, a series of podcasts dedicated to the industries biggest trends. On this show our CEO Jason Bryan speaks with Henning Lagerbielke, Director, BSS at Enghouse Networks.  Following the recent developments by the GSMA in creating the Billing and Charging Evolution, we wanted to get some fresh thinking on what BCE really means for the roaming business. As we know, producing new standards is one thing, but getting them established is a much bigger challenge. With the help of Henning from Enghouse, Jason had the chance to ask the big questions on what BCE really means for the industry and most importantly what’s its potential. https://www.enghousenetworks.com

It was a great pleasure for ROCCO Research CEO Jason Bryan to speak with Tom Sofer from TOMIA recently, based in Israel Tom is a specialist in VoLTE Roaming and gave us some unique insights into the challenges and opportunities in the market.

ROCCO Group celebrates its 8th Anniversary, Dhiraj Wazir, Desiree Fenix and Jason Bryan share news from 2020 and announce the winner of the Great Summer Roaming Quiz.

Off the beaten track of what ROCCO Radio normally does, host Jason Bryan interviews his father on entrepreneurship. Telling the story of his career Michael Bryan is not from the telecoms industry but has a lot of advice for budding entrepreneurs.

These days Roaming is front of mind for mobile operators as we consider the global economic impact which Covid 19 has introduced and the effects it will have on the coming years to travel trends and roaming. It's clear Roaming relationships are more important than ever. So while the industry considers its next move many MNOs will be using this time to get ahead on the rollout of 5G Roaming services for their subscribers. Recently we had the opportunity to interview Vice president Product Management Mobile Services at iBasis Chris Lennartz. In his interview Chris discusses IPX services in the context of 5G Roaming and how Roaming teams are getting acclimitised to the challenges and opportunities it brings.

ROCCO Radio was invited to Israel recently to talk to Nick Wennekers, Director of Product Management at TOMIA about their projects on Blockchain and how they believe the Roaming processes can benefit.

Speaking with associations, Operators, vendors and professionals outside of our immediate industry, ROCCO is trying to learn what other industries are using Blockchain for and how it might help us. Which is why on a recent trip to Australia I was lucky enough to meet Surlak Patel, a specialist consultant in Blockchain, DevOps, Cloud and Product Management Surlak and I have recorded three separate podcasts for you, covering everything from the basics, right through to security, IoT, AI, and every step of the way there’s some innovative ideas about how Blockchain will be used by telecoms operators.

Speaking to the GSMA, Operators, vendors and professionals outside of our immediate industry ROCCO is trying to learn what other industries are using Blockchain for and how it might help us. Which is why on a recent trip to Australia I was lucky enough to meet Moira Scerri Lecturer and researcher – Operations and Supply Chain Management at the University of Technology in Sydney. In her Interview Moira describes her career path and how it led to her current role at UTS and confirmed how it seems certain Blockchain will have a strong role to play on our industry in the future.

For our final ROCCO RADIO podcast of 2018 we’re taking you to Alaska with the wonderful Kim Jakubowski. Kim is Sr. Manager of Roaming Services at Alaska Wireless Network, LLC. Her career story, her insights into US Telecoms over the years, Tech trends, Airline Etiquette and Women in Tech means this podcast has something for everyone. Thanks to all our listeners for supporting ROCCO RADIO this year.

Welcome to WELL CONNECTED, on this weeks show I speak with Vedrana Miholic, whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently at the WAS 8 event in Croatia. Vedrana spoke in the Women in Tech sessions at WAS, and it was a great pleasure to get to know her a little better. In her interview Vedrana tells us about her role in Stemi (learning by creating), a place where people are encouraged to create new things such as their Hexapod Robot, where you can literally build your own robot, Learning how to assemble it and how to create a mobile application with which you can control it. As more and more women are needed in tech, to help make this field more diverse it was really encourgaing to hear Vedrana talk, about the progress they are making with the Stemi Solution.

After 1 year of ROCCO RADIO we present our latest Well Connected podcast featuring James Williams from Mr Connectivity. In his podcast James tells us about his long career in Telecoms as well as a wealth of knowledge in the Mobile Engagement sector.

As Pontus says in his own words. He's more of a revolutionary than an evolutionary. From Telia to Twilio we finally got to sit down with one of our industries more well known Telecoms gurus.

ROCCO RADIO presents Mastermind Series One featuring 5 challengers from the telecoms industry who must select 3 categories and answer 9 unknown strategic questions. The Challenger who after two weeks who gets the most likes on ROCCO's LinkedIn page post will win a prize. Todays challenger is Barna Kutvolgyi, Managing Director at JT Group. His specialist topics are 1)Blockchain, 2)OTTs 3)Mystery. Lets see how he copes with ROCCO's tough strategy questions.

ROCCO RADIO presents Mastermind Series One featuring 5 challengers from the telecoms industry who must select 3 categories and answer 9 unknown strategic questions. The Challenger who after two weeks who gets the most likes on ROCCO's LinkedIn page post will win a prize. Todays challenger is Dean Bubley, Director at Disruptive Analysis. His specialist topics are 1)Blockchain, 2)5G and 3)Mystery. Lets see how he copes with ROCCO's tough strategy questions.

ROCCO RADIO presents Mastermind Series One featuring 5 challengers from the telecoms industry who must select 3 categories and answer 9 unknown strategic questions. The Challenger who after two weeks who gets the most likes on ROCCO's LinkedIn page post will win a prize. Todays challenger is Roee Froman, Director, Product Management and Global Presales at Starhome Mach. His specialist topics are 1)Blockchain, 2)Roaming and 3)Mystery. Lets see how he copes with ROCCO's tough strategy questions.

ROCCO RADIO presents Mastermind Series One featuring 5 challengers from the telecoms industry who must select 3 categories and answer 9 unknown strategic questions. The Challenger who after two weeks who gets the most likes on ROCCO's LinkedIn page post will win a prize. Todays challenger is Rami Avidan, CEO Tele2 IoT. His specialist topics are 1)eSIM, 2)IoT and 3)Roaming. Lets see how he copes with ROCCO's tough strategy questions.

ROCCO RADIO presents Mastermind Series One featuring 5 challengers from the telecoms industry who must select 3 categories and answer 9 unknown strategic questions. The Challenger who after two weeks who gets the most likes on ROCCO's LinkedIn page post will win a prize. Todays challenger is Öykü Mengenli, Director of Roaming from Mobileum. Her specialist topics are 1)Roaming, 2)OTTs and 3)our Mystery category. Lets see how she copes with ROCCO's tough strategy questions.

It was with great pleasure that recently we had the chance to catch up with Arthur Panos Director of Roaming at the Bridge Alliance. In his interview Arthur told us about his story in Vodafone Group, retail trends in Asia, regulations in Australia and beyond and the great work of the Bridge Alliance in bringing MNOs together across Asia and Africa.

Bay is known as BetaBay because of his passion for testing new technologies and always trying to improve himself. Bay is a leader in the world of startups and has built his career by helping startup ideas come to life. Reading his career story from Apple to Brinc.io I thought the telecoms community who listen to our podcasts would like to hear his story. In his interview Bay discusses his days in Apple and their Entrepreneurship Evangelism Channel, his roles in various start-up companies and how Brinc.io is helping evolve the amazing world of Internet of Things.

In 2008 Stephen Ornadel led innovative changes to the International standards for fraud prevention for MNOs, engaging MNOs globally and the whole vendor community to embrace stricter measures for fraud prevention which today have become ubitquitous globally. It was a great pleasure therefore to get the whole career story from Steve, from his first days as a mobile operator in TMobile, through his career in Telcordia and iconectiv to his current role today as Vice President of Business Development at Mobileum. Providing insights on Fraud prevention today, MNP, eSIM, the future of telecoms, and the advanced analytics of Mobileum, it’s always a great pleasure to hear his wisdom.

In this weeks well connected we're in Dubai with Tom Noel, MD of the International Division of JT Global. Over the 13 years we have watched JT evolve, they have gone from being a small telecoms operator in the Channel Islands to being a truly international wholesale provider to all kinds of businesses globally. So it was great pleasure that we got to know one of the people whom is part of that driving force in innovation at JT Global, Tom Noel. From IoT, to messaging and beyond its clear there’s no stopping JT Global.

One of the chief architects of Roaming in Africa and Nigeria Consolata Ugboko. Consolata talks to us about her career, how she got into telecoms and what she thinks to the telecoms market today. Listen up to this latest episode in the Well Connected series.

In this Newsdesk we try and provide 99% coverage of the some of the key themes at the recent WAS meeting with a number of interviews with thought leaders that we met at the conference. We hear from Sonia Harjani from Travelling Connect about their new trading platform solution for handling IOT negotiations. We also chatted with Sarah Barakat from Monty about their new solution known as the MRewards service. With a key focus of the WAS meeting on Women in Tech we spoke to the wonderful TRavia Stewart from BICS about what she felt companies can do to encourage diversity in the workplace. And finally it was a pleasure to welcome back Vicky Sleight who was presenting in the women in tech forum at WAS about how mentoring and sponsorship for men and women is a great way forwards to turbo charge careers in this space. All Interviews which we think between them really capture the spirit of the WAS meeting.

This is the first Eureka! Podcast from ROCCO RADIO. Eureka! is a series of podcasts dedicated to innovation in our industry. This first podcast features Hugh Carberry from Anam Technologies talking about his Eureka! moment building the perfect MNO focussed reporting solution for Anam.

Copper Horse’s CEO, David Rogers had a chat with Rocco’s Jason Bryan for the Rocco Radio Newsdesk about the launch of the UK government’s Secure by Design launch and the Code of Practice on IoT security. The government’s Secure by Design report is available here.

Recently we met with the Jerry Raatikainen! C.E.O. of UROS Finland, Swedish and a fan of Rock and Roll he is a real personality and shared with us his insights on UROS's work on the Internet of Things, eSIM and of course the world famous Goodspeed mifi device.

In this Newsdesk we try and provide 99% coverage of the some of the key themes at MWC 18 with a number of interviews with though leaders that we met at the conference. We hear from Henry Hayter Senior Director of product Management at Transaction Network Services (TNS) bringing a US perspective of the scale up on VoLTE Interconnect, Roaming and Iot. Ajay Joseph, CTO at iBasis talks to us about their solution for IoT. With 5G Security in mind we spoke to Steve Buck Product Director from Evolved Intelligence. And with such a buzz on RCS in the conference we heard from Dimoco's Managing Director Mathias Hollerl on the realities behind RCS coming to market. Finally it was a real pleasure to hear from CEO and Co-Founder of 365 squared Tonio Ellul about their unique analytics solution for SMS. All Vendors which we think between them really capture the spirit of MWC 2018.

It is always a great pleasure to get new insights in the market. Syniverse is a name that many Mobile Operators and Enterprises around the world will know well. They've been a pioneer in mobile for over 25 years and today connect more than 1,500 mobile operators, enterprises, ISPs and OTTs in almost 200 countries. In our Interview with Syniverse we tackled John Wick Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Transaction Services on many of the hot topics of day including IoT, RCS, VoLTE and we learned what's next for Syniverse in the coming year.

Recently we were truly inspired by our Well Connected interview with Hannah Metcalfe Country Manager – Tanzania and Kenya at Viamo – changing lives via mobile. What Hannah’s role is and what her background and personal goals showed us that theres truly a strong and important role for mobile engagement in Africa even without a smartphone, especially for people who genuinely want to change lives.

Last June we uncovered the tier one vendors in our A2P SMS Messaging Vendor Performance Report. Route Mobile were one of those tier one vendors. We had the chance to interview Rajdip Gupta, Group CEO of Route Mobile Ltd. In his BIG Interview Rajdip discusses the acquisition of 365 Squared, RCS and the future plans of Route Mobile Ltd.

Here at ROCCO it is always a great pleasure to interview people with passion, ambition and intelligence and Vicky Sleight expresses all of these facets with real personality. In this podcast we talk to Vicky about her career in telecoms, working for BT Cellnet, Motorola and the GSMA and how now as an entrepreneur via her company Perfect Ltd, Vicky is taking on diversity and inclusion challenges in our industry. Talking about artificial intelligence, the GC Index and Connected Women, in this podcast Vicky really makes you think about what more we can do to make our businesses more successful by embracing a diverse workforce.

In this first podcast of 2018 we bring you a BIG Interview. I was lucky enough to Interview one of the tier one vendors in our recent report ANAM Technologies. Joining me online were CTO John Murtagh and CCO Mr Darcy himself. In their interview, Brian and John tell us about their secret sauce for making a leading SMS Firewall, we talk about the new Technology hub that Dublin has become and whats next for ANAM Technologies in 2018.

This weeks Well Connected was recorded in Montego Bay Jamaica where I was lucky enough to be invited to present and hold workshops with the MNO team at the 10th Digicel International Business Forum. While I was there I had the opportunity to catch up with one of the industries most known International Business Managers, Group Head of Roaming, A2P and IoT at Digicel Group, Alex Perera.

In all aspects of Telecoms we come to the question is it better to offer a service which is economical or that is focussed on high quality. Mostly we settle in the middle somewhere, but clearly the options are cultural and differ from one country to the next. Recently I had the great pleasure to talk to one of industries quality gurus, Torbjorn Pettersson from Telia Carrier. His insights and scope of knowledge is rare in our industry and we had a great discussion. Most people will know Torbjorn from his work in the GSMA but his history in telecoms is really extensive. A rare and interesting interview.

One company known for leadership in the Mobile Engagement space is Infobip. Reaching tier 1 in ROCCO’s A2P SMS and SMS Firewall Vendor Performance reports. They are a company that from the feedback we have received, MNOs clearly admire and want to work with in this space. It was therefore a great pleasure to recently meet ELVINO KRIZMANIC Director of Channel Partnerships and RENATA STEFIC Director of Telecoms Solutions. In their interview Renata AND Elvino talk about their telecoms story, the Omnichannel approach to mobile engagement and what's next for Infobip.