I3News – September Edition

Two days. One industry. A shared ambition to build a more trusted, innovative and collaborative future for international communications.

The inaugural i3Forum “Partnership & Trust Summit” brought the international communications community together in Madrid for two days of discussion, debate and, importantly, collaboration.

Hosted by BTS, and supported by our event partners Orange, PCCW Global, iBASIS andCellusys, the Summit created an opportunity to step beyond individual organisations and consider some of the challenges and opportunities facing the wider international communications ecosystem.

From fraud, identity and vetting to AI, network APIs, numbering, new technologies and the changing role of international carriers, one message was consistent throughout the event: the challenges facing our industry cannot be addressed in isolation.

Day One placed the focus firmly on the i3Forum community, bringing members together to hear the latest developments from across the Forum and explore the work taking place within our Work Groups.

The sessions provided an opportunity not only to share progress, but also to challenge thinking, identify priorities and consider where i3Forum can have the greatest impact.

Day Two opened the conversation to the wider industry.

Martin Kähl, Specialist – Policy & Development at Europol EC3, explored caller ID spoofing and the architecture of anonymity in his keynote, “(Still) Going Dark on the Line: Caller ID Spoofing and the Architecture of Anonymity.”

The Senior Leadership Panel – Industry Perspectives: Enabling the Future of International Communications brought together senior leaders from across the ecosystem for a forward-looking discussion about the forces reshaping the industry.

Moderated by i3Forum Vice Chair Christian Michaud, the panel brought together Patrick George of iBASIS, Luis Manuel Montero Rodrigo of BTS, Nicholas Nikrouyan of Deutsche Telekom, Linda Cham of PCCW Global and Jairo Bravo of Orange Wholesale.

The conversation explored the changing international communications landscape and the opportunities for carriers to continue evolving their role and delivering value in an increasingly complex ecosystem.

The Summit wasn’t designed to be two days of presentations alone.

Roundtable sessions gave participants the opportunity to move from listening to contributing, bringing different parts of the ecosystem together for more focused conversations around key areas of i3Forum’s work.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Madrid was that partnership and trust are not simply themes for an event. They are fundamental to how our industry needs to operate.

Fraud does not stop at organisational or national boundaries. Neither does innovation.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Madrid and contributed so openly to the conversations across both days.

Thank you to BTS for hosting the Summit, and to Orange, PCCW Global, iBASIS andCellusys for their support.

Thank you also to our speakers, moderators, Work Group leads, Board Members and everyone who participated in the panels, roundtables, and discussions.

The conversations may have started in Madrid, but the real value comes from what happens next.

For i3Forum, that means continuing to bring the international communications ecosystem together, developing practical industry recommendations and guidelines, creating opportunities for open discussion, and enabling our members to turn shared challenges into collective action.

If you are not already an i3Forum member and would like to find out more about us, visit https://i3forum.org/join/ for more information.