What is your name and your organisation?
Eli Katz, XConnect (and in my 'spare time', Chairman, Comms Council UK)
What is your role at XConnect?
Founder and CEO
How long have you been working for XConnect/been in the industry?
I’ve been working in the industry for 27 years. I founded XConnect and co-founded Comms Council UK - formally ITSPA - in 2004.
What is XConnect’s USP/key focus areas?
We are a global provider of trusted real-time number information for the telecoms, messaging and identity ecosystems. Our worldwide data helps operators, service providers and A2P messaging aggregators efficiently route, rate and validate their traffic as well as prevent fraud and avoid surcharges. Our network and subscriber information also enables identity and fintech providers to analyse and mitigate risk.
What achievement is XConnect most proud of?
As a relatively small company we’re proud to call some of the world’s largest telco and messaging operators our customers, responding to over 40 billion real-time queries a year.
We’ve built our own carrier-grade, geographically resilient, cloud-based secure infrastructure and along with the amazing service from our team, it means they trust us to deliver accurate, mission-critical data for essential services to their customers.
What are the key trends that you are experiencing currently in the market?
A couple of key things we’re seeing include:
A significant industry trend of messaging and voice providers building or acquiring new services to diversify their offering and introduce new revenue streams. For instance, voice providers are expanding their services into messaging, and messaging providers are launching CPaaS solutions.
The growing confidence of using cloud-based services for real-time carrier grade requirements.
What do you see as the main industry challenges at present?
We’re seeing a massive focus to restore trust in telecoms. Measures are being taken by both industry and regulators to tackle fraud, spam and spoof calls and messages. This is happening across the world with both the US and the UK making significant strides. This is vital to ensure the survival of the industry and to enable new, enhanced identity services that will help drive further growth.
If there was one thing in the industry you would change or want to resolve, what would it be?
I’m really keen to see global solutions to restore trust in CallerID (and SenderID for messaging) to minimise spoofing and fraud. I think it’s really key to the continuing growth and development of our industry.
What opportunities do you foresee for the sector?
Post-Covid and the WFH trend has triggered a significant shift in communications services towards ‘collaboration services’. Combined with the UK’s PSTN 2025 sunset, this should provide significant upsell opportunities of enhanced services to UK businesses of all sizes.
What benefits do you get out of Comms Council UK membership?
As chair of Comms Council UK, I have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the brightest UK telco minds, influence the strategic direction of the industry and help enable the telecoms sector in the UK to be a shining light onto the world stage.
