The Telecoms IQ Quiz concluded on September 20th, with a 25-question quiz related to the telecommunications industry, it was a tough competition. To win the quiz, participants had, not only to achieve the highest score but also to do it in the quickest time possible.

It was a great honour for us to announce Asena Akcay as the winner of the Telecoms IQ Quiz 2021 Edition. Currently based in Germany and working at Sinch, with many years of experience working for Vodafone in Turkey, Asena has definitely proven her vast knowledge in the world of roaming and telecoms by winning ROCCO’s quizzes two years in a row. To celebrate her achievement, Jason Bryan, CEO of ROCCO Research, interviewed Asena to get to know her better.

This is an edited version of the interview with Asena Akcay.

Jason: It’s a pleasure to be with Asena Akcay. Where does that name originate from Asena?

Asena: It´s an old Turkish name, it´s the name of a female wolf, Asena, in a Turkish legend, who saved Turks and guided them.

Jason: And so you live right now in Germany and work for Sinch? And what is your role in Sinch?

Asena: Yes. I work at Sinch based in Munich. I’m a product manager. I’m doing E2E product management and working very closely with almost all the teams in my company. So a very wide role.

Jason: That’s amazing. Sinch, is definitely a brand which has become very famous globally. It must be a very dynamic environment.

Asena: Yes, exactly. I love my company. I think Sinch is the best in its field. I like working in my role. I like all those kind and nice people. I feel really lucky because all the people are really knowledgeable, enlightened, and funny and kind. I have a great working environment.

Jason: That’s wonderful. So let’s go back because I would like to know more about you. How did you start in the telecom sector?

Asena: I started working in the telecommunication industry in 2000. I worked at a mobile operator in Turkey named TELSIM. Then, Vodafone acquired TELSIM, and it became Vodafone Turkey. And I continued working at Vodafone until 2019. It was an amazing journey for me. I also love Vodafone, it’s a great company and the best in the sector, my first love. And then I started working at Sinch in 2020, last year. I have been in this industry for 20 years, a long time.

Jason: So when you were working in Turkey for the Turkish mobile operator, what were you doing there? What was your role?

Asena: I worked in CS (Circuit Switch) Core Operations and CS Core Operational Support teams for a long time. And then in the Roaming Operations team for more than three years. And the last department that I worked in was the Technology Analytics team. It was a great experience. I worked in a variety of roles and departments during my Vodafone journey.

Jason: Yeah, it helps to know commercial things as well as technical things and operational ones.

Asena: Yes. During that time, I worked maybe with almost all the departments in Vodafone. You know, IT, Core operations, I mean, Sales, Enterprise Business, Products & Services and etc. Throughout departments, I’ve worked with many people. And this provided me really a comprehensive view and understanding and a good perspective.

Jason: Yeah of course. No, I think that it helps to get this broad knowledge of what the business does. What would you say is your favourite part of the business of telecoms these days?

Asena: Yes, I can say that it is roaming, roaming is my strength. And also, I was really happy at the technology analytics department, because I was analysing data, and giving insights to the respective departments. Sometimes we created many products with those insights, and it was really, really good. Because I mean, creating and executing ideas, it is really great. That is something I really like doing.

Jason: Sure. And I see that in Sinch, there’s a lot of innovative thinking going on.

Asena: Yes, that’s right.

Jason: So let me ask you another question. You work in a team, how do your colleagues define you? How would they describe Asena?

Asena: I hear from them mostly “Hey, take a break, don’t work that until late” hahah! As far as I know, they like me. I don’t know, but since I’m someone who likes investigating deeply and analysing, maybe they would define me like that.

Jason: I see. And it’s been a challenging couple of years. Are you finally back in the office with your colleagues?

Asena: No. We haven’t started working 100% at the office. Not yet.

Jason: Okay. Yeah. What would you say are the main challenges that teams or companies are facing right now in the industry?

Asena: You know, it was a big challenge for all companies in all sectors in 2020, I mean the covid-19 pandemic, and being under lockdown was the biggest challenge for all of us. Companies had to review their business strategies and goals to be able to adapt to this situation and handle it. As the time passed by, people got used to this situation and companies created new business models and found their way to move on. Thankfully we’ve started to go back to our normal lives step by step in time, and I think, this year, mostly it´s been focused on keeping the revived markets alive.

Jason: Sure. And so getting back to work, it feels like the industry is starting a new chapter now. It seems like there’s more people travelling.

Asena: Exactly. We’ve started travelling, for example, I went on holiday this summer for the first time since the pandemic. I think it’s going step by step. Not of course immediately, but it´s getting stable overtime…

Jason: Yeah, that’s great. So you’re here and I’m interviewing you because for the second year you have been the number one person in our telecoms IQ quiz, which we started last year. It was a surprise for us because you came in quite late as an entry.

Asena: Yes, I know. Because when I saw the post of the quiz on LinkedIn first, I thought that, okay, I was the winner of the last year’s quiz. So it’s okay, I could stay back this year. But then I noticed that it was a telecom quiz this time, not a roaming one. Then I said to myself “I can take this as well because it’s a different one”. But I didn’t have time for a long time because I was working really hard. I’ve been really busy lately. But when I noticed that only two or three days left, and I thought that I should be quick. And I did it.

Jason: But what was your secret? Because you got the highest score in the shortest possible time?

Asena: Yes, I know thank you. Actually, last year, I took the quiz several times, because I was trying to improve the timing and raise some scores. This year, it was only for… three times?. First, I took the quiz and there was one question that made me really confused. You know, I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and have never heard of such a thing as receiving SMSC. Do you remember that question? First I read the question. I said, “There is no receiving SMSC. What they are talking about?”. I was just, I was going to select the option A, but I thought: “Maybe there is a trick here. Maybe they are talking about Forward SM messages coming from MSS to SMSC, or maybe SRI4SM response message coming from HLR ”. “Maybe they are meaning that”. It really made me confused. And then, when I took the quiz first, I saw that there was no trick, simply there is no “Receiving SMSC”. Yeah, I think, the questions were not much easy.

Jason: No, they were very hard this year.

Asena: Especially for the ones regarding statistical values, I mean statistical parameters, these were a bit hard. Of course, I got Google´s help a bit, which I’m sure everyone did that, right? It wasn’t only me.

Jason: And we didn’t expect anybody to get the kind of results that you got. We wanted to make it very, very hard, because for many of the questions the answers were not available on Google either, so…

Asena: Yes, I know that. I couldn’t find many things on Google hahaha. I was just listening to my own feelings while answering those ones. I ticked the options that I thought were the right answers based on my experience. And it was mostly correct. Yeah, there the results were very good.

Jason: So you’ve won an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. Have you ever used any of these virtual reality headsets before?

Asena: No.

Jason: It’s very interesting, the world of virtual reality and extended realities. I’m also very envious of you. It’s so funny, because I think that some people think learning new things, or education or training is something for kids. It’s something like adults don’t do that often. But I think it’s really important to keep on studying and learning new things, even when you’re an adult.

Asena: Yeah, that is me. I really like learning and doing research. If I can’t find the answer to a question, I cannot stop thinking about it until I get it. You know, I’m someone like that. So it was really good to take this quiz. And btw, of course, I love ROCCO too. So it’s all great.

Jason: No, you’ve done very well, there was a lot of competition. And it was really tough. So bravo for achieving these results. Anybody you’d like to say hello to or thank?

Asena: Of course, I would like to thank my lovely companies that I worked at in the past and that I work now. So to all my colleagues as well because I’ve learned many things from them, also from my managers, from my friends in the industry. So of course, I would like to thank all of them. And also, Jason, thank you. And, of course, ROCCO. So thank you for the presents. You’re so nice.

Jason: You’re clearly a person who is very knowledgeable in the industry. So I hope that people will take the opportunity to get to know you, and learn about you. You’re clearly very knowledgeable person, I hope you have a wonderful, successful career.

Asena: Thank you so much. I would like to add something funny. Many of my friends didn’t take this quiz actually. Then after I got my first place for the second time, they´ve started saying that they would participate in the quiz next year to compete with me. So it’s getting popular.

Jason: I think you’re gonna have a lot of competition next year.

Asena: Yeah exactly. They are ready to take this quiz next year. So thank you so much, Jason. It was really a great experience and it was a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much.

Jason: Thank you Asena. It’s a real pleasure to talk to you too.

Congratulations Asena! A big THANK YOU to everybody who has supported us by taking and sharing the Telecoms IQ Quiz.

Roaming and Interconnect are unique and complex niche areas of telecoms relying upon specific standards and processes which often you can only learn by being directly involved. That’s why ROCCO U has created its unique courses that you can take online, on-demand as well as on-campus and off-campus.

Keep learning!

Written by Cristina Ruiz, ROCCO U Coordinator.