Get the latest announcements from MEF Members across the mobile ecosystem globally in this weekly review of member news…
Geidea and tpay partner to transform digital payments in KSA, Egypt, & UAE
Geidea, a key fintech player in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), has entered into a strategic partnership with tpay, a prominent payment connector in the region, to redefine digital payment accessibility and options. The alliance will provide merchants with a streamlined, integrated payment suite that encompasses Direct Carrier Billing (DCB), card payments, and e-wallets—all through a single, accessible aggregator platform. With digital payments in META projected to grow at a robust CAGR of 17.7% through 2030, this partnership aligns with the region’s expanding need for innovative financial solutions.
The collaboration leverages the strengths of both companies to simplify digital transactions for merchants in key markets, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE. By unifying various payment options on one platform, the partnership aims to facilitate a more seamless and accessible payment experience. Furthermore, the initiative will promote financial inclusion by extending digital payment capabilities to underserved communities, contributing to a more inclusive financial ecosystem across the META region. This development marks an essential step in tpay’s evolution toward becoming a comprehensive, integrated payment enabler in the region.
This partnership represents a significant milestone in our mission to offer merchants a full spectrum of payment options within a single platform,” said Eslam Gaber, VP of Commercial at tpay. “By integrating our capabilities, we provide a comprehensive solution that meets the diverse payment needs of merchants, enhancing their ability to serve customers seamlessly.”
tpay CEO Isik Uman commented, “Joining forces with Geidea allows us to complement our existing presence by adding new payment methods that deliver even more value to our merchants. We’re not just expanding our offering; we’re providing a versatile, unified payment solution that drives digital transformation and financial access across META.”
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LINK Strengthens UK Presence with Reach Interactive Acquisition: A Stronger, Smarter Approach to UK Messaging
LINK has announced the acquisition of UK-based Reach Interactive, a move aimed at strengthening LINK’s presence in the UK and enhancing its messaging solutions for clients. With Reach Interactive’s user-friendly self-sign-up (SSU) platform now part of LINK’s service suite, the acquisition will simplify access to LINK’s messaging tools, streamlining onboarding for customers and supporting faster deployment of services.
The acquisition of Reach Interactive aligns with LINK’s strategic focus on providing scalable, multi-channel messaging solutions tailored for local markets. By integrating Reach Interactive’s SSU platform, LINK aims to improve its UK offerings, enabling faster and easier customer onboarding with locally-optimized and reliable messaging capabilities. The expanded UK operation is expected to deliver stronger market coverage while maintaining LINK’s high standards for quality, security, and efficiency in digital communications. This collaboration signifies a step forward in LINK’s commitment to innovative and accessible communication solutions in the UK.
“At LINK, we’re all about pushing boundaries, setting standards, and delivering top-tier messaging solutions. Bringing Reach Interactive into the fold is one more step in that direction, and we’re genuinely excited for what’s next. Our combined strengths will pave the way for new achievements, and we can’t wait to share this journey with you.” Simon Dodd, Managing Director, LINK UK
Infobip, a prominent player in global cloud communications, has been recognized as the leading provider in the 2024 RCS Business Messaging Competitor Leaderboard by Juniper Research, topping a list of 17 vendors. This acknowledgment stems from Infobip’s strong global reach, strategic partnerships, and innovative RCS (Rich Communication Services) offerings. Juniper Research evaluated vendors based on factors like geographic footprint, RCS deployments, and the quality of value-added services, which for Infobip include conversational AI, customer data platforms (People CDP), and CPaaS X solutions.
As the first platform in the U.S. with an active RCS connection, currently linked to Verizon and with plans to integrate more carriers, Infobip is well-positioned for growth in the RCS space. Juniper highlighted the strength of Infobip’s RCS Messaging-as-a-Platform (MaaP) layer, which supports telecom operators and is integral to scaling RCS messaging globally. This robust infrastructure and commitment to innovation make Infobip a key driver in expanding business messaging capabilities through RCS.
RCS is the next SMS and provides a rich experience natively available on consumers’ phones. With Apple now supporting RCS, it has universal availability. As a result, RCS Business Messaging users and traffic will grow over the next five years. As pioneers in global omnichannel communications, we lead the market with innovative solutions, as our ranking in Juniper’s RCS Business Messaging Leaderboard demonstrates.” – Silvio Kutić, CEO at Infobip
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Twilio Announces Integration with OpenAI’s Realtime API for Building Conversational AI Applications
Twilio has announced an integration with OpenAI to incorporate OpenAI’s new Realtime API into the Twilio platform, enhancing its conversational AI offerings. This integration introduces streaming speech-to-speech (S2S) capabilities, allowing Twilio’s extensive customer base—over 300,000 businesses and 10 million developers—to develop advanced conversational AI agents utilizing OpenAI’s GPT-4o model. The multilingual, multimodal capabilities of GPT-4o will enable more dynamic and accessible interactions across a range of languages and modalities.
This collaboration builds on previous integrations between Twilio and OpenAI, reinforcing Twilio’s commitment to harnessing large language models (LLMs) to support real-time, personalized customer engagement. By combining Twilio’s robust customer engagement tools with OpenAI’s advanced AI capabilities, businesses can create highly responsive virtual agents that engage users more naturally and effectively.
“Integrating OpenAI’s Realtime API with Twilio’s platform enables businesses to offer more natural, real-time AI voice interactions at scale,” said Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer, Twilio Communications. “Businesses can use this to create voice experiences that feel more human and can reduce operational costs and drive higher customer satisfaction.”
“The Realtime API’s speech-to-speech capabilities are designed to address strong customer demand for conversational AI solutions,” said Olivier Godement, Head of Product, API at OpenAI. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Twilio to deliver a world class developer experience for building and deploying conversational AI agents.”
RCS Business Messaging Traffic to Grow 50% in 2025
A new study by Juniper Research projects that global Rich Communication Services (RCS) business messaging traffic will hit 50 billion messages in 2025, buoyed by Apple’s anticipated support for RCS in that year. This would mark a notable increase from the forecasted 33 billion messages in 2024. However, to fully realize this growth, the report emphasizes that operators must collaborate with RCS business messaging (RBM) providers to establish robust ecosystems that facilitate enterprise adoption and scalability.
Key to growth in 2025, the study suggests, is operator onboarding of RCS services onto Google’s Jibe platform. This move would enhance network interoperability, reduce the costs of launching RCS services, and potentially accelerate the pace of adoption. Still, the report foresees that a slow onboarding process may impede rapid global growth in RBM traffic during 2025.
Looking beyond 2025, the report anticipates stronger RBM traffic growth in 2026, fueled by increased operator support and Apple’s expanded RCS capabilities across more regions. This momentum is projected to drive global RBM traffic to reach 200 billion messages by 2029. An excerpt from Juniper’s Global RCS Business Messaging Market 2024-2029 report is available for a deeper insight into these projections and strategies for overcoming barriers in 2025.
Research Author Molly Gatford commented: “Accelerating growth of RBM in 2026 will also require operators to offer basic RCS messages at the same price as SMS. This will support enterprises’ transition from SMS to RBM for transactional messaging, increasing familiarity with the channel to drive future growth.”
CTO Talks Spooktober Themed “Dare to Process Your Personal Data” To Raise Awareness on Personal Data Security in the Digital Era
Telin recently hosted a successful “CTO Talks Spooktober” event at Telkom Landmark Tower in Jakarta, themed “Dare to Process Your Personal Data.” Aimed at raising awareness around personal data protection in today’s digital age, the hybrid event attracted a broad audience, underscoring Telin’s commitment to promoting data security knowledge. Led by Telin’s CTO, Abdul Rahman Ansyori, the session featured a unique blend of cybersecurity insights and Halloween-themed creativity, opening with a lively performance by the Xbricks group to set an energetic and engaging tone.
Throughout the event, Ansyori encouraged participants to grasp the growing cybersecurity challenges and emphasized the proactive measures needed to protect personal data. The program included discussions with four seasoned panelists from Telin units who shared their perspectives on secure and ethical data management, offering participants practical strategies to safeguard against data misuse.
Through the CTO Talks Spooktober event, Telin aims to actively contribute to improving digital literacy and fostering a secure, sustainable data ecosystem. Telin’s commitment extends to continuously educating and equipping the digital generation with the knowledge and skills to manage their data responsibly and securely. By promoting these values, Telin seeks to empower individuals to navigate digital spaces with confidence, ensuring that their personal information remains protected and used ethically. This initiative reflects Telin’s dedication to cultivating a community that is well-prepared for the data-driven future.
AVPA comments on the EU Digital Services Act
The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), representing suppliers of age verification and age estimation technologies, has submitted its feedback on the European Commission’s call for evidence concerning minors’ protection under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The AVPA emphasizes the need for practical solutions for age verification, particularly for adult content access, and suggests that relying on physical national ID cards may not be viable until the European Digital Identity Wallet is widely available. They express reservations about the proposed “double-blind” approach, arguing it may be overly complex without addressing an evident problem, especially given the absence of reported privacy breaches in current age assurance processes.
To address privacy and security concerns, the AVPA advocates for the adoption of a tokenized, interoperable age verification ecosystem, led by the non-profit euCONSENT ASBL. This approach, they argue, would integrate privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) while supporting a competitive market for age assurance services in Europe, balancing privacy with reliable age verification across various digital contexts.
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United Group has officially joined the Joint Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility (JAC), a coalition focused on promoting responsible supply chain practices in the telecommunications sector. This move aligns United Group, a major telecom and media provider in Southeast Europe, with other global industry leaders committed to enhancing social, ethical, and environmental standards within their supply chains.
With a substantial presence in the region, including the largest FTTH network and services reaching 5.3 million fixed-network households and 7.5 million mobile subscribers, United Group aims to leverage its JAC membership to further responsible business practices across its supplier ecosystem. The JAC alliance plays a key role in fostering sustainable practices, conducting joint audits, and sharing best practices among members to address issues like ethical sourcing, environmental sustainability, and fair labor standards. By joining JAC, United Group reinforces its dedication to transparency, minimizing environmental impact, and upholding robust CSR principles across its operations and partnerships.
Miriam Di Traglia, Executive Director Compliance, Risk & Sustainability of United Group: “Joining JAC is an important step in our journey to champion responsible and sustainable practices within the industry. As a member of this global alliance, United Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical business conduct, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. We look forward to contributing to JAC’s mission and working alongside other members to drive meaningful change in the industry.”
