Get the latest announcements from MEF Members across the mobile ecosystem globally in this weekly review of member news…
BICS’ Gatta calls on EU operators to lower Ukraine-EU voice costs
Matteo Gatta, CEO of BICS has issued an open letter to EU mobile operators calling on them to unify and lower termination costs for Ukrainian citizens.
Specifically, Gatta says that EU mobile operators should “remove all charges on voice calls coming out of Ukraine and terminating into their networks” adding that BICS will support this by “carrying this traffic at no cost”.
The open letter goes on to suggest that if nothing else, “operators should bring their termination costs in line with mobile termination rates (MTR) costs for calls within the European Union, which will still allow Ukrainian operators to reduce the cost of these calls for their subscribers.”.
Speaking to Capacity on the call to action, Gatta explained, saying ” The focus here is on the needs of people who need to stay close while they cannot be close. We believe in the power of voice and the ability to have conversations during this time.”
He says that while many Ukrainians are being welcomed in other European countries at the moment, it is vital that calls from Ukraine are affordable.
“The best way to do that, is to ask the receiving side, meaning the operator in Europe to drop their termination charge. So that the operator in Ukraine have an incentive to lower their price for the end user,” he says.
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iProov Secures Spot on FT 1000 List of Europe’s Fastest-Growing Companies
iProov’s phenomenal growth has caught the attention of the Financial Times.
The outlet’s annual FT 1000 list was set up to recognize the fastest-growing companies in Europe, and it has iProov ranked in the 57th spot in an increasingly competitive European marketplace.
The companies on the latest FT100 list were ranked based on their fiscal performance between 2017 and 2020. Those whose revenues displayed the highest CAGRs were placed near the top, while those with lower CAGRs received lower positions.
“To be recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe is truly remarkable,” said iProov Founder and CEO Andrew Bud. “This recognition is a testament to the dedication of everyone on our extraordinary team. Our mission is to make the world a safer place with secure, effortless online identity verification and we look forward to continuing our growth as we meet that challenge head-on every day.”
iProov has previously been identified as one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK, after making its way onto the Deloitte Fast 50 list in each of the past two years. The company recently received a $70 million investment from Sumeru Equity Partners, though it is also facing a patent infringement lawsuit from FaceTec that was filed earlier this year.
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MWC 2022: Telefónica boosts cloud cover with AWS, Microsoft
Demonstrating exactly how the leading telcos will extend their reach and change their modus operandi, Telefónica’s Tech division is to become an AWS Premier Consulting Partner, while the operator has extended the scope of its collaboration with Microsoft.
Telefónica Tech and Amazon Web Services (AWS) said they are committed to fostering innovation in the cloud.
Telefónica Tech plans to launch several value-added services such as edge computing and cloud-native private 5G networks that run on AWS Outposts, and the collaboration is designed to open up new opportunities in 5G and use cases for edge computing, as well as machine learning, internet of things (IoT), video and game streaming and Industry 4.0.
Fundamentally, Telefónica Tech and AWS will develop joint go-to-market activities to support customers’ use of cloud services and enable more 5G and edge services for customers. In Spain, Telefónica is launching TV-commerce app Selección Hogar de Movistar on its pay-TV subscription service, allowing users to browse more than 20,000 home products and a wide selection of products available on Amazon.es.
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WASPA partners with Evina for secure mobile payments
The Wireless Application Service Providers Association (WASPA) has partnered with international cyber security company, Evina.
Founded in Paris over 15 years ago, Evina provides MNOs, merchants, ad networks and payment gateways with advanced cyber security solutions for mobile payments and advertising. In the short term, Evina has enabled WASPA to identify the most significant vulnerabilities in the SA value chain and to act as a whistleblower and mediator with the relevant players.
David Lotfi, CEO of Evina, says SA is a major economy at the forefront of the latest developments in mobile payments.
One of the advantages of a young and dynamic economy is that it can benefit from cutting-edge technologies such as direct carrier billing (DCB), which is an online mobile payment method, that enables users to buy stuff by charging payments to their mobile phone carrier bill.
However, he says being at the cutting edge comes with a slew of new threats. “In 2020, we estimated that almost one in three subscriptions made via DCB payments in SA were fraudulent.”
He says Evina also found that old frauds such as clickjacking, which could have been fought, had not been. “This situation was unacceptable for the end consumer and for players in the DCB sector.”
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Winners of the MEFFYS 2022 announced live at MWC Barcelona
The winners of the 2022 MEFFYS Awards have been announced. The MEFFYS, hosted by the UK-based Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), celebrate innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the Mobile Ecosystem.
This is when the industry has the opportunity to recognise, applaud and showcase those individuals and companies that have made a significant difference in 2021 across MEF’s core ecosystems.
“The MEFFYS winners are nominated and voted by the professionals in the industry in an open online contest. This is a true representation of the sentiment in the industry,” says Dario Betti the CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum. “Innovation in mobile is now global with winners from Europe, Latin America and Asia. And, very importantly, these innovators are also looking at the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem.”
“We’d all like to send our congratulations to the winners of this year’s MEFFYS. Each award is well deserved and showcases companies and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the mobile ecosystem. Our awards nights get bigger and glitzier every year, and this year was no exception! We hope that the MEFFYS party will be a staple of future MWCs in the coming years,” adds Betti.
