Mover & Shaker Interview with VOX Solutions, Future Digital Awards Platinum Winner for Best Flash Call Authentication Solution
Juniper Research interviewed Ehsan Ahmadi, CEO & Founder of VOX Solutions in February 2024
Ehsan brings more than 20 years of entrepreneurial and executive experience with leading technology companies.
Always passionate about technologies and solutions, and turning pain points into new opportunities, Ehsan was also an early investor, business angel and advisory board member of many successful start-ups. Ehsan holds a BS in computer science and electrical engineering from UPB, and an MBA from LSE.
1. How has VOX solutions seen the market evolve for flash calling over the last 12 months?
The evolution of flash calling has experienced widespread growth across various regions, particularly accelerating in areas characterised by high population and high rates. Among these regions, the most significant surge has been witnessed in the APAC (Asia Pacific), CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), and MENA (Middle East & North Africa) regions.
Given the considerable scale of this trend, it is imperative for mobile network operators to actively participate in shaping and adapting to it within a standardised framework. With respect to the evolution of flash calling, we believe the following to occur:
2. How important is authentication for enterprises, and what roles does flash calling play today?
Authentication holds a paramount importance for enterprises, serving as a cornerstone for secure operations. It is essential for enterprises, but also for the adoption of alternative channels (Google RCS still starts with the user registering via SMS). To that end, due to its cost, flash calling emerged as an important channel for authentication purposes. The rate of adoption of flash calling hinges on the degree to which operators are formally integrated into a collaborative framework. Unfortunately, without unified collaboration, flash calling tends to be mostly used by fraudulent aggregators, sent instead of SMS. For that reason, it does not represent a sustainable channel under the current framework, as MNOs can implement solutions to block it. This has an impact on enterprises which were promised they can use it as an alternative to SMS in given networks.
3. What visibility do operators have on flash calling traffic, and how can they improve their view on traffic on networks?
Research indicates that over 90% of flash calling traffic remains unidentified by mobile network operators, prompting the inclination to block such traffic. However, solutions exist to empower operators with control over this traffic. VOX Solutions has pioneered the development of such a solution, offering the capability to either block or monetise flash calling, transforming it into an officially recognised end-to-end channel. As far as we know, we remain the sole company to have implemented such a solution directly on operators’ premises, and as mentioned, the vast majority of MNOs still do not have a flash calling solution implemented, meaning we expect over 90% of flash calls in the market to remain undetected in 2024.
4. How does VOX360 enable operators to handle the growth of authentication over the voice channel?
VOX360 empowers operators to manage the expanding demand for authentication via the voice channel by facilitating the transformation of flash calling into an authorised and revenue-generating channel. This grants enterprises the assurance of utilising the channel consistently as a pivotal component of their omnichannel strategy, mitigating the risk of potential blockages by operators in the future. To that end, VOX360, which is powered by ML (Machine Learning), is the only solution implemented (to VOX Solutions’ knowledge) that gives operators the ability to either block or monetise flash calls, thus turning A2P voice into an end-to-end monetisable channel.
5. What benefits does VOX360 provide to operators in the flash calling space?
As a Managed Service, VOX360 drives immediate revenue increase by actively monitoring in-out flows, using traffic admission policies, limiting unauthorised service use, while boosting security, compliance, and cost reduction efforts through up-to-date systems, using cutting-edge proprietary AI technologies, industry best practices, and methodologies and dedicated personnel with extensive experience in A2P fraud detection/prevention and monetisation.
The issue so far was the lack of a seamless solution for MNOs to totally control the Flash Calling environment, allowing operators to define related trunks and an associated A2P rate, all whilst rejecting calls coming from other (P2P) trunks. At VOX Solutions, we have the solution for the problem, allowing MNOs from now on to monetise flash calls, by:
All in all, we allow MNOs to control every aspect in the movement, including price. For example, one can price flash calls marginally below SMS, bringing perhaps 2FA (Two-factor Authentication) capabilities to an audience that could not previously afford it, therefore actually expanding the 2FA market.
6. Where does VOX Solutions envisage the market for flash calling developing over the next two years?
Operators leverage their mobile channels for messaging, and while A2P SMS has been a significant revenue-generating business, this revenue is under threat with the introduction of flash calling, as the technology will cannibalise A2P SMS traffic.
According to Juniper Research, by 2026 there will be nearly 130 billion calls expected to be used for authentication, as an increasing number of brands and enterprises look to capitalise from the benefits of flash calling.
As this traffic grows, it becomes increasingly important for operators to be able to ensure they can identify and monetise this traffic. Migration of authentication traffic is inevitable, and operators must position themselves to capitalise on it.
