TCXC Blog

In an earlier blog post, we introduced Open Text Shield (OTS) as a free, AI-powered SMS firewall designed to go beyond traditional rule-based filtering systems. With OTS, communication service providers (CSPs) can protect their networks across multiple messaging platforms such as SMS, email, and RCS. As spam, phishing, and scam attempts increase, the need for real-time, AI-driven solutions is becoming crucial.

Building on the success of that post, we’re excited to share how the latest OTS and SMPP protocol integration enhances your SMS firewall by not only blocking phishing attempts in real time but also generating revenue from scammers—without sending the harmful content to subscribers.

What if you stop SMS scammers in their tracks while monetizing their failed phishing attempts? This is exactly what OTS does when integrated with the SMPP protocol. With this powerful combination, phishing messages are identified instantly, blocked from reaching subscribers, and the scammer is charged for the attempt—boosting CSP revenue in the process.

Let’s take a real example from an SMPP integration powered by OTS.

A phishing message arrives:
“Urgent! Your bank account has been compromised. Click here to secure it now: http://bit.ly/73737373a”

The result? DING DING —scammers pay, subscribers stay protected, and CSPs profit.

Traditional SMS firewalls rely on static rules that can’t keep up with the constantly evolving tactics of phishers and scammers. OTS, with its AI-driven capabilities, addresses these limitations by learning from new threats and adapting in real-time.

Here’s why OTS is the future of SMS firewalls:

OTS was built with flexibility in mind. Whether you’re using SMPP, SIP, RCS, or SMTP, OTS seamlessly integrates into your existing infrastructure. This makes it the perfect companion for any SMS firewall strategy.

Deploy in Two Commands:

Try the Cloud-Hosted OTS API:

If you’re relying solely on a traditional SMS firewall, it’s time to consider OTS as either a complement or a replacement. With its AI-driven content analysis and real-time threat detection, OTS ensures your network stays secure from the ever-evolving tactics of scammers.

Key Features of OTS:

As phishing and spam attacks become more sophisticated, traditional SMS firewalls can no longer keep up. OTS, integrated with SMPP, offers a future-proof solution for CSPs. Not only do you protect your subscribers, but you also capitalize on failed phishing attempts to increase revenue.

Start using OTS today and experience the power of real-time, AI-powered protection that also boosts your revenue.

Download OTS:

Need Help?
Our team is here to assist you with integrating OTS into your infrastructure—completely free of charge. For expert support, reach out to us at [email protected].

The integration of OTS with your SMS firewall not only enhances security but also monetizes scammers in real time. By using advanced AI, real-time analysis, and easy integration with existing systems like SMPP, you can safeguard your network while increasing profitability.

Don’t settle for outdated SMS firewalls—upgrade to OTS today and stay ahead of modern-day threats.

#SMS Firewall #OpenTextShield #AI Security #RealTimeProtection #TelecomSecurity #CSPRevenueBoost

The post Real-Time SMS Firewall: Catching Phishers and Monetizing Scammers with OTS and SMPP Integration appeared first on TCXC Blog.

Providing real-time billing to your communication platform as a service (CPaaS) customers is critical, as it ensures that everyone pumps traffic within the authorized limits. Centralized and real-time charging expands your selling possibilities and decreased your risk of fraud by a significant percentage.

In this blog post, we’ll go over how to use TelecomsXChange (TCXC) as a realtime Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA or Triple A) for your Restcomm cloud CPaaS platform.

TCXC can provide your sub-accounts on Restcomm cloud with realtime prepaid charging leveraging Restcomm Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) feature. This feature allows you to route each sub-account to a a specific SIP or SMPP profile.

Let’s say you want sub-account AC12348xxxx for (Enterprise A) to go through prepaid billing before the message or voice call is finally sent out, in a few steps you’re able to achieve this:

• Login to TCXC Buyer Portal
• Link your TCXC Account(s) with your Restcomm Sub-account(s)
• Manage prices for Voice and SMS in TCXC Seller console or API
• Set prepaid limits or credit limit per account, when account reaches 0 the traffic will be automatically blocked.
• SMS / Voice Traffic will pass through TCXC to perform AAA before it’s sent to the final termination destination

Additional features worth mentioning:

• Set SMPP rate limit per account
• Set SIP concurrent call limit per account
• Authorize based on country prefix length or MCCMNC
• Share balance between accounts or use Own balance per account
• Block/Unblock accounts
• Online top-up (Stripe, CashU, Bank, ACH, PayPal)
• Set online top up limit per sub-account
• Price change notifications

A critical part of CPaaS is phone numbers (AKA Virtual Numbers or DIDs), TCXC platform gets this part handled, sellers can host and set the pricing for phone numbers using the TCXC Seller console or API,

• Set monthly recurring price per phone number
• Set one time setup fee
• Set per minute/second price for incoming voice calls to the number
• Set per message incoming rate for SMS (Concatenated Billing is supported)
• Immediate wallet deduction upon purchase
• Low balance reminders
• Upcoming number renewal alerts
• Automatic monthly recurring collection from prepaid wallet
• Virtual number subscription logs (History of number ownership)
• Automatically remove number from API and console upon purchasing
• Automatically restore number to API and console upon canceling or releasing the phone number
• Price change notifications

• Configure verification document requirements where needed.
• Authorize inbound SMS and voice calls only once verification documents approved.
• Set number(s) capabilities [Voice, SMS, FAX, Video].
• Automatic RESTful API enablement for all your hosted numbers.

Once you have finished hosting you’re virtual numbers on TCXC and setup the billing details for them, Restcomm can leverage the Programmable X DID exchange API to interact with virtual numbers on the backend.

Contact [email protected] for assistance on setting up communication platform as a service (CPaaS) prepaid billing.

The post CPaaS Prepaid Billing (AAA) appeared first on TCXC Blog.

You’re in a hurry to search and find a UAE virtual phone number and point it to your SIP infrastructure to start accepting business phone calls, what do you do?

In this blog post we show you how to search and buy a legit UAE phone number and point it to your IP-PBX to start accepting phone calls.

In order to search for a phone number and buy it , you may follow the below steps:

• Login to your TelecomsXChange buyer account here
• In the navigation menu click on DIDs >> Market view
• In prefix field enter [971]
• Click the Submit button
• A list of all available UAE phone numbers are shown in the table
• Choose a number you like to own by clicking on the BUY button
• In Point To enter the SIP address where you’d like to point the number to and click Purchase to complete the transaction

You may search, find and purchase virtual numbers via TCXC Programmable X API, here is how:

Search for phone numbers:

Buy the phone number (API Call):

API Response:

• Build a Local Customer Base in United Arab Emirates
• Enhancing Existing Customer Service Experience
• Drive Cost down for your customers
• Increase voice quality and two-way sms communication with your consumer base
• Scalability automation, go from 1 channels to many  channels without worrying about upgrading your hardware infrastructure

P.S: KYC documentation are required for numbers to be activated.

For more information about UAE DID Numbers,  contact our sales team here

The post How To Buy UAE DID Numbers in 2020 appeared first on TCXC Blog.

In this tutorial we demonstrate how you can interconnect with Telin (By Telkom Indonesia) in minutes. This adds another 0 hop & Open RTP carrier interconnection for you seamlessly. Telin made available to all TelecomsXChange (TCXC) members. You can utilize Telin’s direct routes immediately from Market View. 

Established in 2007, Telin is a subsidiary of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Indonesia’s largest state-owned telecommunication and network service provider serving more than 200 million retail customers (including mobile, fixed broadband, and other subscribers).

Telin offers a comprehensive range of high-quality international carrier voice, data services, and business solutions aimed wholesale, enterprise, digital player, and retail customers with operations in Indonesia, Timor Leste, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, Macau, Taiwan, United States, Myanmar, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Telin’s services include Voice, Data Connectivity, Internet & Content, Mobility, Enterprise Service, and Other Solutions.

For more details visit https://www.telin.net/

1- Login to your TelecomsXChange Buyer Account

2- Navigate to Market View page

3- In Seller field enter “Telin” and click “Search”

4- Click on the + icon to purchase Telin’s routes

5- You will receive tech details (IP+Prefix) to start terminating to Telin from your allowed SIP servers IPs.

• Better Quality of Service (QoS) for your customers
• Guaranteed Caller ID (CLID) Delivery
• Better Price
• Open RTP (Direct Media Flow to Telin’s Infrastructure)
• Programmable API for prices, interconnection, Ticket escalation

Developers may interconnect and interact with Telin’s routes and prices via API programmatically, to do this you may visit TCXC developer documentation for details.

The post Interconnect With Telin In Minutes appeared first on TCXC Blog.

Audit logs listst important teams events. An admin can review audit logs to determine:

• When users logged in.
• Which users performed a specific action or any action via web

Audit logs currently include events for everything done via web access like team management, billing, and security.

In your TCXC Seller/Buyer account portal click on Logs >> Web Access

In the Web Access logs page, you see information categorized as USERNAME, SOURCE IP, REQUEST_URI, REQUEST and DATE/TIME

For more information about audit logs and how to set it up for your TCXC team members, contact the support team.

The post Introducing Audit logs for Teams appeared first on TCXC Blog.

TelecomsXChange (TCXC) platform enables modern communication providers to buy and sell voice, SMS and virtual numbers (DIDs) securely and transparently using intuitive UI or programmatically using API.

What’s new?

From today you’ll notice new API endpoints for buyers and sellers and new UI features in TCXC portal, find below brief summary of what’s new.

• When trying to search for virtual numbers (DIDs) you’ll notice a new backorder link available if no numbers are found, this enables buyers to submit a back order for DIDs that are not immediately available in DID market view
• You can now submit and view DID backorders.
• Sellers can now find DID subscription logs under DID menu to understand ownership history and billing better
• Buyers can now find DID subscription logs under DID menu to understand billing and cancellations easier.
• Buyers and sellers have new filter options for buyers Payment History and Seller Payout history allowing users to run advanced search for payments. New filter options includes notes, amount, payment system used.
• Seller / Route Edit UI – Replace Check box with Toggle Switch
• New React App for public use. Find working numbers, anywhere (NOC Tool) Try it now (Built using TCXC API V.2)
• New API! allows sellers to Sell & Update DID numbers programmatically.
• New API! allows buyer/sellers to retrieve payment history via API.
• New API! allows sellers to retrieve market’s top destinations with traffic.

Bug Fixes

• We’ve fixed a bug in DID market view where SQL error showed in some cases.

For more information on this release, contact [email protected] or visit members portal if you’re an existing member.

The post Release Notes: New APIs, DID Features & More.. appeared first on TCXC Blog.

Romania, Nov. 12, 2019 — Nobel Globe, a market-leading communication service provider (CSP) joins the TelecomsXChange platform to provide buyers on the platform instant access to zero hop direct SMS routes to Europe to deliver mission-critical messaging to end-users.

Having entered the telecommunications market in 1998, Nobel has proven its ability to constantly grow and keep up with industry trends by successfully being a market leader in numerous areas of the telecom industry. 

Products like prepaid calling cards, postpaid long-distance, physical distribution, superior carrier services worldwide and turnkey call center solutions, are only a few of the areas in which Nobel is a trusted brand for many years. 

Applying the same recipe that took us to the peaks of the voice industry, today we can offer SMS worldwide connectivity, being able to reach over 800 operators in 180 countries across the world. 

Nobel’s messaging services can be integrated via multiple API services that are integrated with the customers’ existing infrastructure successfully delivering digital interaction over SMS as the communications channel. 

As a result, enterprises gain increased mobility, efficiency and value that they can pass on to their customers. With our in-house technical expertise, installed at various operator facilities, our SMS solutions deliver better accountability, load-balancing, and ROI beyond any other. 

Nobel SMS provides international A to Z SMS termination at the most competitive rates, web-based SMS applications, bulk SMS for SMS campaigns and advanced SMS enterprise solutions via API with real-time monitoring. 

We are excited to list our SMS direct routes on TelecomsXChange’s open and commission-free exchange platform, as it gives end-customers full visibility and control on their critical choice of SMS, voice and DIDs network providers. TelecomsXChange is a fast-growing cloud exchange platform and one unified platform that can be utilized using a graphical user interface (GUI) or programmatically using application programming interface  “API”.

With this partnership, CSPs or CPaaS providers on TelecomsXChange can utilize Nobel direct routes in seconds (Romania, India, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, China, Vietnam, Poland, Germany, etc.) and premium routes to deliver high importance, mission-critical messages to end users globally.

• About Nobel SMS: https://www.nobelsms.com
• About TelecomsXChange Platform: visit www.telecomsxchange.com 
• API Tutorial: How to access SMS prices in real-time, interconnect with Nobel programmatically using APIs visit the  Programmable X documentation page.
• Discuss pricing directly with Nobel’s account manager. Click here

The post Nobel Joins TelecomsXChange appeared first on TCXC Blog.

Bharti Airtel today, October 23rd, 2019, offered special wholesale rates to India (Open RTP) on TelecomsXChange (TCXC) to further support the TCXC members community. Sign in to members area to utilize the special rates India and Bangladesh via TCXC with one click interconnect or programmatically via API.

Communication service providers (CSPs) that seek high quality termination to INDIA over VoIP/SIP protocol can now get interconnected and start utilizing the service in Minutes!

Airtel Communications will be transiting your calls to India all operators (Price at flat rate $0.0093 (USD) 1/1 “Effective on May,1 , 2020”) – if you’re reading this later than this date the price may have decreased or increased. please login to market view for real-time pricing info.

Bharti Airtel Limited, also known as Airtel, is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, and also in the Channel Islands.

1. Login to your Telecomsxchange buyer account, New user ?
2. Click on Market View
3. Enter 91 in Prefix field
4. Enter “Airtel” in the Seller field and choose route “Gold+”
5. Click Search
6. The rates will show up and now you can click on “+” icon to interconnect and purchase this route.

Rate sheet “Full Price list” will be automatically emailed to you once Route has been purchased along with SIP Settings and prefix to send your calls to India via Airtel.

To interconnect using application programming interface (API) please visit our developer documentation page.

For any clarification, customers can reach out to [email protected] or [email protected]

The post Direct Termination to India (CLI – OpenRTP) appeared first on TCXC Blog.

In July 2018, Matt Torman wrote a great blog on how Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) Brings Flexibility to Cloud Phone Solutions, in this post I will extend the key benifits that Matt mentioned in his blog and go over more details on why this is a huge deal and a great business decision made by Zoom’s team.

If you’re a regular reader on our blog, you’d probably know by now that we’re always advocating carrier connectivity freedom. In fact we have built our whole business to serve this carrier freedom mission. We believe in a commission-free full transparent prepaid carrier exchange platform for Voice, SMS and Phone Numbers.

As we always say, every carrier has their strength and weaknesses, they each have great coverage for certain networks and destinations, but not to all, specially world wide coverage is really tough to be done perfectly by a single carrier. For businesses to truly have best quality of service and cost, you simply need to have the freedom to select the carrier you want to be routed through, that gives you best quality and price. You should also be able to see quality metrics, carrier ratings and review per destination before making the final routing decision.

While writing this blog post, I have tested Skype calling out to my international number, and I received the call from an local number ( Simbox or grey route) that had a very low sound and unstable connection, Now with Zoom Phone BYOC to solve this issue, I guess you would just login to the SBC and change the carrier to the destination your calling to. However businesses that have agents calling all over the world, don’t have the resources to have a relationship with every carrier in the world to have the best cost, quality possible for every destination, maintaining that would be a night mare. So businesses are stuck with a handful of carrier options to route their calls through.

Since Zoom Phone decided to give its users the BYOC freedom, TelecomsXChange can compliment this in a big ways, by giving you the ability to connect your Zoom Phone Cloud Solution directly to 300+ carriers in minutes. Carriers including (Airtel, TATA, Verizon International, IDT… ) at wholesale prices. To give you an example, you could make calls to India via Airtel on TelecomsXchange for $0.0046/minute (billed per second 1/1) thats around 218 minutes for $1.00, Twilio charges $0.035/minute (billed per minute) where you would get 28 minutes for $1.00. This is just a small example of the savings you get when use Zoom BYOC with TelecomsXChange platform. When it comes to quality the media travels directly between your Zoom network and Airtel, leaving TelecomsXchange to handle only signaling to track billing and minutes.

In the modern world, we believe that everything should be programmable as it allows easy integration between platforms, Zoom currently provides developers with a wide library of APIs and great documentation that allows you to add integrations and extend the existing Zoom functionality.

TelecomsXchange has a commitment to make telecom wholesale business fully programmable, check out our blog on Programmable Exchange. With both platforms having application programming interface (API), fully automating the BYOC setup, financial reports, routing decision is totally possible. In fact with a few lines of code, you can automate your carrier selection based on Least Cost, Quality Metrics (ASR/ACD/PDD) or ratings and reviews, all in real-time!

Zoom did a brave and generous move that is truly aimed on the user experience. TelecomsXChange wholesale telecommunications startup that spend the last decade onboarding Tier 1, 2, 3 carriers to give buyers the ability to consume their services in seconds. By using a single wallet removing all the paper work and commitments that go into play when dealing with large telecom operators.

If you have any questions on how to use Zoom Phone BYOC with TelecomsXChange. Please contact [email protected] .

The post Zoom Phone BYOC feature is a BIG deal! appeared first on TCXC Blog.

Austin, TX – October 8, 2019/PR Newswire/ — Today, Telestax, the leader in CPaaS enablement for communications service providers worldwide, announced the release of Smart 2FA for the Restcomm CPaaS platform. Restcomm Smart 2FA delivers two-factor authentication with one-time password (OTP) for SMS, voice, and email and is immediately available to Restcomm Cloud users and partners within the Telestax service provider ecosystem. Its bring-your-own-carrier option is particularly unique among CPaaS solutions and includes flexible APIs and robust analytics features.

According to a recent report by Google, NYU, and the University of California San Diego, receiving a secondary SMS code blocked 100 percent of automated attacks, 96 percent of bulk phishing attacks, and most direct, targeted attacks. 2FA is critical for businesses to implement to protect their users and organizations against online attacks. The new application released by Telestax makes implementing 2FA easier and simpler for organizations worldwide. 

“Before Smart 2FA, a business would have to spend considerable time building or customizing a 2FA application to work for their environment,” said Kevin Nethercott, Chief Commercial Officer at Telestax. “Now with our new Smart 2FA application, a business can easily plug in a complete OTP authentication solution. This reduces development time by at least 75 percent in most enterprise deployment cases.” 

The Restcomm Smart 2FA application allows communications service providers (CSPs) to deliver a scalable 2FA solution over SMS, voice, and email channels to their enterprise and small-to-medium-size business customers and developers. The solution is ready to implement and immediately provides key features such as:

• Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC) – With Smart 2FA, the CSP can deliver 2FA at reduced cost and better delivery rates thanks to the BYOC feature. By controlling routing from the existing core, the CSP can quickly address delivery or routing issues. 
• Intuitive Console – Businesses can stay on top of their 2FA traffic with a smart console. The console displays usage reports by day, month, or year with easy search filter criteria like country code, channel, delivery status and more. 
• Simple APIs – Smart 2FA is an omnichannel application, making it simple to send an OTP via SMS, voice, or email.
• Control APIs – Businesses need options to orchestrate 2FA processes for security authentication in the manner that works best for them. Smart 2FA provides the option to cancel OTPs while they are still active, and to send new ones. Or perhaps the business chooses to keep OTPs active for a period of time while simultaneously sending a new one. With Smart 2FA all these configurations are possible. 
• Rich API Set – Businesses can select any language for voice calls including text-to-speech (TTS) with support for engines like VoiceRSS, Acapella, Amazon Poly, and Google Text-to-Speech. 

For telecommunications companies interested in competing in the API marketplace, the BYOC feature from Telestax provides key differentiators.

“BYOC ensures a service provider can deliver higher quality and better pricing to their business customers,” said Nethercott. “For example, if a business was choosing an over-the-top provider, they are dependent on the carrier that the over-the-top provider uses for connectivity. The risk here is that this may not be the best quality network. In addition, the over-the-top provider will pass the network connectivity charge on to the business. With Smart 2FA, the service provider chooses the network that works best for their business. This not only saves the customer money but ensures a superior connectivity experience.” 

As with the entire Restcomm platform, Smart 2FA includes a whitelabeling option, allowing a CSP to rebrand and go to market in hours while keeping the traffic within their network. The Smart 2FA application is available immediately. More information about Restcomm Smart 2FA can be found at www.telestax.com. 

Source: Google – New research: How effective is basic account hygiene at preventing hijacking. https://security.googleblog.com/2019/05/new-research-how-effective-is-basic.html

The post CPaaS News: Telestax Launches Restcomm Smart 2FA CPaaS Security Application with Bring Your Own Carrier Functionality. appeared first on TCXC Blog.