Day: February 24, 2026

Adoption of cloud-native Mavenir BSS and Core aligns with TextNow’s focus on long-term innovation

SAN FRANCISCO and RICHARDSON, Texas, Feb. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TextNow, the leading ad-supported U.S. free wireless service, and Mavenir, the disruptive cloud-native telco technology provider, today announced the integration of Mavenir’s cloud-native mobile BSS and Core into TextNow’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) infrastructure.

Mavenir’s cloud-native BSS and Core platform solution is designed to help TextNow to onboard new users faster, launch differentiated service tiers, and expand its free wireless model to reach even more of the millions of Americans looking for great wireless service without overpaying for it. Highlighting TextNow’s focus on innovation, this Mavenir integration delivers a range of features to better support TextNow’s 8 million+ active users, including the ability to manage sponsorship partners, develop roaming relationships, and provision users with independent SIM profiles.

“TextNow has spent 17 years proving that wireless service can be free, can be supported by advertising, and can deliver a great experience on a nationwide 5G network,” said Tristan Huntington, Senior Vice President, Partnerships & Innovation, of TextNow. “Partnering with Mavenir allows us to remain at the forefront of innovation, giving us more control over the customer experience and a faster path to launching new features — which means we can keep pushing the boundaries of what free wireless should be.”

Mavenir’s flexible cloud native modular platform can support every MVNO model and their go-to-market strategy, whether launching a sub-brand, adding mobility to an existing portfolio, or scaling a challenger brand.

“The MVNO market continues to evolve as operators look to innovate and differentiate their offerings – but this is simply not possible without the flexibility and scale enabled by the underlying cloud-native platform,” said Sandeep Singh, SVP & General Manager, Business Solutions, of Mavenir. “TextNow’s adoption of Mavenir is a prime example of how Mavenir’s cloud-based technology is helping to take an MVNO to the next level, shifting from ‘Thin’ to ‘Thick’, enabling a high degree of service innovation and differentiation, and bringing free connectivity to millions more customers.”

The Mavenir platform allows thin MVNOs to enter the market with a world class BSS platform, enabling personalization, differentiation, and smart bundling of customer offers to help maximize revenues. It will also offer thick MVNOs full network level control to innovate and build deep network integration, which includes features like QoS segments, Standalone 5G connectivity monetization, and IoT traffic handling.

Mobile World Congress [#MWC26]: 
Mavenir Convenes MVNO Leaders for High-Impact MWC26 Panel

Mavenir, in collaboration with Mobile World Live, will host an MVNO panel at MWC26, “MWC26 Panel: Built for More, Bound by Less: The Rise of a New Breed of MNO Embracing AI, Cloud & 5G – Mavenir” at its stand in Hall 2, 2H60. The session will highlight how MVNOs can accelerate growth through cloud-native architectures, AI-driven insight, and flexible monetization, offering practical tactics to differentiate on experience rather than price.
Register – For In-Person or on the Live Streaming of the panel.

About TextNow:
TextNow is on a mission to make phone service free, easy, and accessible to all as the only mobile provider to offer unlimited calling and texting, and free essential data on the nation’s largest 5G network. Founded in 2009, TextNow is the largest provider of free mobile phone service in the U.S., and the only one offering free service supported by advertising. We have offices in San Francisco and Waterloo, Ontario and our app has been downloaded more than 300 million times globally. Our phone service helps millions of people connect freely every month. For more information, visit https://www.textnow.com/, and follow us on Instagram.

About Mavenir:
Mavenir is enabling intelligent, automated, programmable networks through the development of telco-first, cloud-native, AI-by-design software solutions for mobile operators. The company’s deep telco domain expertise has been proven through deployments with 300+ operators globally in over 120 countries, which together serve more than 50% of the world’s subscribers. Mavenir combines its deep telco experience with the cloud and IT expertise and data science skillsets essential to solving real customer challenges. Its proven software solutions are AI by design, delivering the AI-native future and operators’ evolution to TechCos. For more information, please visit www.mavenir.com

Mavenir PR Contact:
Emmanuela Spiteri [email protected]

TextNow PR Contact:
Tali Fischer [email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9660102

• New virtual agent capabilities reduce customer effort, prevent repeat contacts, and give service leaders confidence to scale automation
• With 43% of consumers saying chatbots fail to resolve their issues, Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0 can help organizations close that gap

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today Zoom Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) unveiled Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0 (ZVA), the next evolution in agentic automation. ZVA introduces a new execution architecture and expanded AI capabilities designed to resolve customer issues end to end, seamlessly hand off to human agents, and help enterprises shift from transactional service interactions to connected customer relationships.

Organizations face growing pressure to automate more customer service interactions as volumes rise and cost efficiency becomes a priority. Enterprises are entering what Zoom calls the “resolution economy,” where competitive advantage is defined not by speed, but by first-contact resolution, reduced repeat contacts, and end-to-end workflow completion. Yet disjointed virtual agents can get stuck in silos, unable to seamlessly transfer full context to human agents, creating bottlenecks for complex issues. A recent Morning Consult report commissioned by Zoom found that the top three chatbot frustrations among the groups surveyed are failure to resolve the issue (43%), getting stuck in a loop (38%), and having to repeat information (37%).

“Agentic AI was just the beginning,” said Chris Morrissey, general manager of Zoom CX. “Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0 orchestrates multi-step workflows across systems, continuously learns from human resolutions, and provides full transparency into every agentic action. This allows organizations to confidently automate complex interactions. It’s more than a product update, it’s another step toward more connected customer relationships, where AI and humans work together to resolve issues faster and build trust.”

What’s new in Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0

The next evolution of Zoom Virtual Agent operates across voice and chat, and introduces a new execution architecture designed to automate complex, cross-system interactions with enterprise governance. Unlike competing solutions focused primarily on conversational containment, ZVA is built for execution and resolution, securely orchestrating multi-step actions across systems with observability, control, and measurable outcomes. The following new features are now available:

• Enhanced AI execution framework: Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0 is built on the latest Zoom AI Companion 3.0 architecture, allowing multi-step workflows to run across compatible CRM, billing, order management, and other enterprise systems with full observability and governance. This extends Zoom’s agentic AI capabilities by enabling full-cycle resolution rather than just single-step responses.
• Agent journey transparency and governance enhancements: Account admins can now see the data sources, decision logic, and workflow paths behind automated actions. CX teams can audit performance, troubleshoot breakdowns, and refine automation policies, enabling responsible scaling without sacrificing adherence or control.

The following next-generation enhancements, expected to be generally available in Spring 2026, will expand ZVA’s ability to handle more complex workflows while improving reliability, oversight, and operational efficiency:

• Multimodal large language model (LLM) intelligence: ZVA will be able to interpret and act on customer-submitted documents, images, and structured identifiers such as serial numbers and forms. By extracting relevant data directly from visual and document inputs, the virtual agent can automate service scenarios that previously required manual review, helping reduce customer effort and the need for escalation.
• Continuous learning: When integrated with Zoom Contact Center, ZVA extracts insights from escalated engagements that human agents successfully resolved and applies those validated recommendations, with oversight and controls, to similar future requests. This creates a structured feedback loop based on human-agent resolutions, reducing repeat contacts and improving resolution consistency over time.
• Proactive outbound engagement: The virtual agent can initiate contact, confirm updates, and complete tasks based on known events. This helps organizations resolve issues before customers reach out, reducing inbound volume and customer effort.

Zoom Virtual Agent in action

Modern customer issues rarely fit into a single scripted response. Zoom Virtual Agent (ZVA) is designed to move beyond basic automation, including authenticating users, interpreting inputs, orchestrating backend systems, and completing real business actions within a single, connected workflow.

By reducing repetitive steps and minimizing handoffs, ZVA helps increase first-contact resolution while lowering handling time and operational effort. An example of this is below:

• Scenario: End-to-End Warranty Fulfillment
  • When a customer submits a warranty claim, ZVA can authenticate the user, extract a serial number from an uploaded image, validate eligibility across backend systems, schedule device pickup, initiate a replacement order, and confirm shipment, all within one continuous interaction.
  • If escalation is required, the complete workflow history, including verified inputs and actions already taken, transfers seamlessly to a live agent. The customer does not need to repeat information or restart the process, accelerating resolution and improving the overall experience.

Raising the bar for resolution

As organizations automate more interactions to manage rising volumes and cost pressures, performance is increasingly measured by resolution quality — not containment rates alone. In the resolution economy, automation must accurately interpret intent, execute across systems, and meaningfully reduce operational load.

Zoom is already seeing measurable results internally after implementing the latest updates to ZVA in its own virtual agents:

• Query understanding accuracy: Zoom’s no-match rate (the percentage of total conversation turns in which a virtual agent failed to understand the user’s input) has dropped from 35% to 0%, meaning almost all customer requests are accurately interpreted on the first attempt, reducing repeat queries and friction.
• Significant time savings: On Zoom’s billing team, deflection rates (measuring the percentage of customer support inquiries resolved through self-service tools) rose from 0% to 30% in just three months, saving over 1,000 agent hours per month.

Zoom Virtual Agent 3.0 reflects Zoom’s broader ambition to power intelligent, connected customer experiences where AI and human agents work together to complete complex interactions with speed, transparency, and trust. This is automation designed not just to scale, but also to earn trust with every interaction.

See Zoom Virtual Agent in action

Read the Zoom blog to see how ZVA supports Zoom’s own customers by improving resolution at scale, and stop by Zoom’s booth (#519) at Enterprise Connect 2026, March 10–12 in Las Vegas, to see a live demo.

About Zoom

Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) provides the AI-first, open work platform built for human connection and purposefully designed to move conversations to completion. From entrepreneurs to global enterprises, customers choose Zoom to seamlessly collaborate, communicate, and drive outcomes across meetings, chat, phone, contact center, events, and more — all with the built-in assistance of Zoom AI Companion. Founded in 2011, Zoom is headquartered in San Jose, CA. For more information, visit zoom.com.

Zoom Public Relations
Travis Isaman
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9660155