Verivox vs Vonage

BNPL Surges for Large Purchases

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is gaining significant traction for larger online purchases. According to a representative Verivox survey, 15% of respondents would now prefer to pay for an online purchase over 1,000 euros in installments, up from 9% in 2024. This is the strongest growth among common payment methods. Invoice remains the most popular (29%), followed by PayPal (21%) and cards (14%). The trend is particularly pronounced among lower-income households, with 23% of those earning under 2,000 euros net monthly favoring installments, versus only 7% of those earning over 4,000 euros. However, the rise in BNPL usage also increases the risk of over-indebtedness. New stricter regulations on installment financing, including comprehensive creditworthiness checks, will take effect from November 20. For smaller purchases (25-100 euros), PayPal remains dominant, and installments are rarely used.

• 15% of respondents prefer installment payment for online purchases over 1,000 euros, up from 9% in 2024.
• Invoice (29%) and PayPal (21%) are the most preferred payment methods for large purchases.
• 23% of households with net income below 2,000 euros prefer installment payments, versus 7% of households earning over 4,000 euros.

Anschlussfinanzierung: Rate steigt um knapp 400 Euro – Zinsvergleich kann bis zu 10.000 Euro sparen

Verivox reports that the monthly rate for follow-up financing (Anschlussfinanzierung) is rising by nearly 400 euros, but a comparison of interest rates can save up to 10,000 euros.

Digital Daily Use Varies by Age and Income in Germany

A Verivox survey reveals that despite near-universal device ownership (99% have smartphones, 98% have laptops/PCs), a significant portion of Germans still perform everyday tasks offline. 10% do banking without internet, 16% plan trips offline, and 17% close contracts without digital tools. Usage patterns vary strongly by age, gender, and income: older adults (60+) are more likely to do tasks offline, women prefer smartphones more than men, and higher income/education correlates with laptop use. Shopping and online research are highly digitalized across all groups.

• 10% of Germans conduct banking without internet, 16% plan travel offline, and 17% close contracts without digital devices.
• 99% of respondents own a smartphone; 98% own a laptop or PC.
• Among those over 60, 32% close contracts offline, 26% plan vacations without digital help, and 28% do not use social networks.

Aragon Research Defines $251B Intelligent Communications Experience Market

Aragon Research has introduced the Intelligent Communications Experience (ICX), a new enterprise technology category unifying unified communications, contact centers, and agentic AI into a single architecture. This convergence eliminates silos and integrates AI agents as first-class citizens alongside human employees, fostering a blended workforce for enhanced productivity. The ICX market is projected to grow from $152.13 billion in 2025 to $251.83 billion by 2031. Industry leaders including Intermedia, Mitel, RingCentral, and Vonage have validated the framework, aligning their product strategies with its core layers: core capabilities, ICX Engine, AI Fabric, and Agentic-Channel. This recognition is expected to drive vendor consolidation and M&A activity as providers build comprehensive platforms. Aragon Research provides the full research note to clients.

• Aragon Research defines the Intelligent Communications Experience (ICX) market, projected to grow from $152.13B in 2025 to $251.83B by 2031.
• ICX merges unified communications, contact center platforms, and agentic AI into a single framework supporting a blended human-AI workforce.
• Intermedia, Mitel, RingCentral, and Vonage have publicly validated the ICX model.

SMS Delivery Status Polling for Waitlist Outage Alerts

The article advises that teams should only rely on an SMS API for critical outage alerts if their backend can poll delivery status and own retry, escalation, cancellation, and timing logic. Delivery reliability and timing constraints drive the design: define service-level objectives, record four reliability invariants (application-owned send IDs, bounded/idempotent retries, defined next actions per delivery state, and incident recovery that suppresses obsolete alerts), and treat providers as transport adapters. The author shortlists Twilio, Vonage, Sinch, and Infrai for evaluation, provides load-testing guidance, and includes a runnable Python example that polls SMS status, honors Retry-After, and applies backoff. The recommended architecture keeps durable incident state in the application and makes provider polling a replaceable adapter.

• Choose an SMS API for critical outage alerts only if the backend can poll delivery status and implement retry, escalation, cancellation, and timing logic.
• Four reliability invariants: application-owned identifier per send; bounded and idempotent retries; every delivery state must map to a defined next action; incident recovery must stop obsolete alerts.
• Article shortlists Twilio, Vonage, Sinch, and Infrai as candidate SMS providers to validate against the same decision record.

Somos Appoints Shannon Donohue as CTO

Somos, Inc. appointed Shannon Donohue as Chief Technology Officer on August 10, 2026. Donohue will lead Somos’ Technology organization as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, advancing technology strategy, strengthening platforms and driving innovation across the global communications ecosystem. She previously served as Vice President of Global Connectivity and Operations at Vonage (an Ericsson company) and has held leadership roles at EZ Texting, Telesign and Proximus Global. Donohue was also a member of the Somos Advisory Board. Gina Perini, Chair of the Board and CEO of Somos, welcomed the appointment and highlighted Donohue’s experience scaling complex technology ecosystems.

• Somos, Inc. appointed Shannon Donohue as Chief Technology Officer.
• Shannon Donohue previously served as Vice President of Global Connectivity and Operations at Vonage, an Ericsson company.
• Donohue previously held leadership roles at EZ Texting, Telesign and Proximus Global.