Interview: Interop Technologies on RCS Business Messaging and the Opportunities it Presents

June 2026

Telecoms & Connectivity

Ardit Ballhysa

Senior Research Analyst

Following Interop Technologies’ win for Messaging Innovation of the Year at Juniper Research’s Future Digital Awards, we sat down with Steve Zitnik, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Interop Technologies, to discuss the growing momentum of RCS Business Messaging (RBM), and how businesses can capitalise on this opportunity.   RCS for Business has been gaining significant momentum globally. How has Interop Technologies seen the channel accelerate over the last 12 months, and what is driving this growth?

The US market, in particular, is undergoing a period of exponential growth. Over the past six months, RCS Business Messaging (RBM) volume has grown at approximately a 950% compound annual growth rate and continue to accelerate. In March 2026, the US RBM ecosystem generated more than 800 million RBM messages. While this volume is still small compared with the current scale of SMS Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging, it already represents approximately 5% of the traffic currently passing over SMS on a monthly basis. That is especially significant given that this volume was achieved within roughly six months of the major US operators bringing the service online.

The primary driver of this growth can be summed up in one word: reach. With the addition of Apple devices, the commercial launch of all three national network operators, and participation from a growing number of regional operators, the foundation is now in place to support broader enterprise adoption. The emergence of the expected ‘hockey stick’ growth pattern validates the long-held thesis that once near-ubiquity was achieved, enterprises would rapidly embrace the channel.

With that growth comes complexity. What are the most significant barriers holding mobile operators back from fully capitalising on the RCS opportunity?

In the US market, there are currently two major choke points that, while not fully stifling growth, have acted as a throttle on market acceleration.

The first, and likely most important, is the vetting and onboarding of new RBM agents. In many cases, the onboarding process for mobile operators remains largely manual. Operators must compile and analyse information from multiple sources to help ensure channel integrity and reduce liability. While efforts are underway to automate this process - and some vendors, including Interop, offer purpose-built solutions - the current number of approved RBM agents is still relatively limited compared with the potential scale of enterprise demand. That number continues to expand, but the pace needs to quicken substantially as demand ramps.

The second complexity revolves around pricing. Basic RBM messaging is fairly well understood by brands because it largely mirrors SMS. Rich and conversational messaging, however, remains promising but are still-developing use cases. When combined with variations in pricing models across mobile operators, this creates some uncertainty for brands considering more advanced RBM campaigns.

These throttles should be viewed as short-term speed bumps, not long-term structural problems. RBM is growing in a very healthy way. To reach its full potential and ultimately rival or exceed SMS adoption, however, enterprise buyers need faster time to market and a higher level of cost certainty.

Why is visibility into what is actually happening across messaging traffic becoming so strategically critical for operators, and what is at risk if they do not have it?

Visibility is crucial across all business verticals, and A2P messaging is no different. Historically, SMS and MMS messaging platforms sat firmly within the domain of the mobile operator. Since traffic passed directly through the operator network and, most importantly, across operator-controlled messaging platforms, operators maintained control and granular visibility into what was happening across their traffic.

In today’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) and RBM ecosystem, those platforms are no longer under the same direct operator control. As a result, much of that visibility and control can be lost. This operational blindness creates risk for operators on three important levels.

First, operators may lack real-time insight into operational and financial performance. They cannot easily see which agents are performing financially, which are underperforming, which are generating complaints, and which are operating cleanly. Operators have long had the ability to conduct real-time business intelligence on SMS and MMS traffic, including understanding traffic patterns, agent behaviour, speed, and thresholds. Those basic operator capabilities can be lost in a generic RBM environment.

Second, operators lose real-time visibility for troubleshooting. With operator-controlled traffic, every aspect of the message path - from ingestion to delivery - is visible to the operator and its support teams. Since RCS and RBM are largely offered as operator services under operator terms and conditions, subscribers will naturally look to their operator for support when issues arise. Without real-time traffic monitoring, the operator’s ability to troubleshoot and resolve end-subscriber issues is significantly restricted.

Third, visibility is essential for financial clearing, governance, and reconciliation. Without traffic visibility, operators lack independent billing records to reconcile invoices or support the financial clearing process. Real-time traffic insight allows operators to generate independent, defensible billing records that can be compared against records from Google and aggregator partners. Because billing disputes between partners are not uncommon, having a reliable independent record of events is essential.

How does Interop Technologies specifically address that gap?

Interop Technologies addresses this gap through RBM-IQ™, an intelligence and assurance layer designed specifically for mobile operators. RBM-IQ™ can operate in proxy mode, where aggregator traffic is sent directly through the proxy before transiting to Google, or in tandem mode, where the operator receives a real-time traffic feed directly from Google. In either model, RBM-IQ™ gives operators the visibility they need to manage RBM as an operator business.

RBM-IQ™ includes business intelligence tooling for forecasting, planning, and monitoring; independent call detail record (CDR) generation and reconciliation tools; and a complete customer support suite. In practical terms, it provides the missing toolset operators need to regain the control, visibility, and operational support they have long enjoyed with legacy A2P messaging platforms.

RBM-IQ™ also supports automated onboarding and vetting workflows that help streamline the onboarding process safely, accurately, and with a complete audit trail. That toolset is essential for helping operators get to revenue quickly while protecting channel integrity.

What does it look like in practice when a mobile operator gains real visibility into its RCS traffic and operational control?

In practice, it starts to look much more like the operator’s legacy SMS and MMS A2P business. The operator can understand traffic behaviour, support customers, reconcile financial activity, monitor agent performance, and enforce governance standards with confidence.

It gives control back to the operator so it can play its traditional role as the trusted steward of the messaging ecosystem and the gatekeeper to its valued subscribers. Rather than being reduced to transport, the operator can actively manage RBM as a commercial channel with the visibility, control, and accountability required to scale.

Where is the future of messaging heading, and how will Interop Technologies continue to innovate to support mobile operators through this evolution?

RCS Business Messaging presents a unique opportunity for the operator community. It gives operators the opportunity to repatriate A2P revenue that has shifted toward OTT channels, grow the broader A2P revenue opportunity, and maintain security, governance, and control over their networks.

Interop Technologies will continue to serve the needs of the operator community by providing the platforms, tooling, and services required to run messaging as a true operator business. We have always listened closely to our carrier partners, and we will continue to develop solutions tailored to their operational, commercial, and strategic needs.

Is there anything else you would like to mention in regard to RCS and RCS Business Messaging?

RCS and RBM are no longer future-state technologies. They are moving into the operational and commercial mainstream. For operators, the strategic question is no longer whether the channel will matter, but how they will participate in and shape the value chain as adoption accelerates.

Interop Technologies is the largest enabler of RCS and RCS Business Messaging in the US outside of the three Tier 1 operators; giving us a unique perspective on what it takes to bring operators of all sizes into the next-generation messaging ecosystem. That perspective is backed by more than two decades of experience supporting mobile operators through major messaging transitions, from legacy SMS and MMS to today’s RCS and RBM services. As operators in the US, Europe, and other international markets advance their RCS strategies, Interop Technologies remains focused on helping them activate, manage, and monetise these services with the visibility, control, and operational support required to protect both the business and the subscriber experience.

Interop Technologies delivers advanced messaging solutions purpose-built for mobile operators.

As messaging ecosystems evolve, subscribers expect seamless, reliable communication experiences across channels. Interop enables operators to meet these expectations today while preparing for what’s next.

With more than 20 years' experience, Interop provides telco-grade platforms that simplify deployment, streamline operations, and support the transition to next-generation services like RCS and RCS Business Messaging (RBM). Our solutions are designed to help carriers modernize their networks, unlock new revenue opportunities, and maintain control of their messaging environment.

About Steve Zitnik

Stephen J Zitnik, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Interop Technologies, combines technical and financial expertise to lead software development, engineering, and IT strategy. A respected authority in mobile messaging, he has chaired numerous working groups, task forces, and steering committees for prominent telecom standards bodies over the past two decades. Previously, he worked for Wireless One Network, where he was responsible for extending the company’s intellectual property portfolio.

To learn more about Interop Technologies and their messaging solutions, visit https://www.interoptechnologies.com/juniper.