Telecom operators looking to monetize their 5G and virtualization network efforts have increased their gaze toward the API opportunity, but long-standing hurdles remain before that financial connection can be made.

The push around telecom APIs gained new momentum during last year’s MWC Barcelona 2023 event when event organizer GSMA released its industry-backed Open Gateway initiative. This program was targeted at standardizing network APIs that the telecom industry can offer to the developer and application community to simplify revenue-generating interactions.

The initiative launched with support from more than 20 companies, including global operator heavyweights AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile Deutsche Telekom, Verizon and Vodafone. It also included positive commentary from most of the cloud ecosystem’s largest players, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft.

Over the ensuing 12 months, a number of carriers and vendors announced various advances on that initial work, but overall momentum remained tepid.

Regaining cooperative momentum

U.S. operators Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile US boosted the pace just ahead of this year’s MWC Barcelona 2024 event when they announced the completion of an industry led cross-carrier API interoperability service.

Srini Kalapala, SVP of technology and product development at Verizon, explained in an interview with SDxCentral that this work was important to help align operator efforts and reduce redundancies.

“Let's say there's a global enterprise that requires simple SIM activation. If each one of us creates an API with our own custom specifications, then that particular partner will have to work with each one of us in our own specialized language. Which, for an automotive company that's operating in 180 countries, they would need to talk to some 100 or 200 carriers and each one with their own interface, it’s very complex. It's just not manageable.”

Telecom API moves need partners

One way Verizon is attempting to simplify that level of complexity outside of just intercarrier work is by expanding its work with hyperscalers. Kalapala referenced Verizon’s own API portal, which offers developers access to the carrier’s network APIs working through API aggregators and hyperscalers, and specifically cited work with AWS and Microsoft.

“That's where the developers are. And when the developer wants something like a network-sliced experience, they're able to go talk to that entity, the Microsoft and AWS, and get that in a very standardized way across all of the telcos,” Kalapala said.

AT&T has a similar view. Stephanie Ormston, assistant VP for digital services integration at AT&T, told SDxCentral in an interview last year that efforts do point toward real progress in open API models that could financially benefit all, but details still need to be nailed down. She stated one of the biggest hurdles was defining minimum network capabilities that need to be supported so developers can start working to innovate on top of 5G platforms.

Getting developer feedback

“Really figuring out what those baseline requirements are is something that we’re still trying to work through,” Ormston said. “I think our industry collaborators, our vendor partners and other operators can come together to help figure that out, but I think if the developers can also start to provide that feedback, that’ll really help us provide what we need. It’s that feedback loop that is missing right now. I think that’s what we’re working toward.”

Hyperscalers have noted progress in working with telecom operators on open API initiatives, but a lot more work is needed.

“You have to have additional components,” Chivas Nambiar, GM for AWS’s telco business unit, during a press briefing ahead of this year’s MWC Barcelona event. “You have to be able to take a workload or a use case, and that use case needs to run on some sort of compute, it needs access to storage and databases and machine learning capabilities at the edge.”

Nambiar added, “And all of those need to work together in a way that a developer can use it to create the solution and test it and see what works and what scales.”

Nambiar said independent software vendors (ISVs) are currently best positioned as an API intermediary between network operators and end users.

“That is where I suspect longer term most of the revenue is going to come from: ISVs consuming the telco APIs to build differentiated experiences,” Nambiar said. “But it’s very early in the game. This year you have probably seen from the plethora of announcements happening right now. This is where that discussion is really starting to heat up, and I’m excited about in two years what the marketplace actually looks like.”

Telecom API efforts questioned

Despite those pre-MWC Barcelona 2024 efforts, analysts noted a dearth of new telecom API momentum from the actual event.

Dan Hays, partner at consulting firm PwC, noted during a press briefing from this year’s MWC Barcelona event that last year’s API was absent from this year’s proceedings.

“It's been noticeably quiet this year,” Hays said. “There hasn't been a lot of new news about the formation of APIs. There are some operators who have gotten together to try and make APIs happen, but after last year's big splash at the start of Mobile World Congress, it was sort of deafeningly silent to not hear about it this year.”

Others remain unconvinced operators will be able to capitalize on this latest API opportunity.

“From a technology stack perspective, from a cultural perspective at the telcos, from a talent and operation model perspective, institutionalizing and monetizing network APIs is really hard for telcos. We've seen this. They're struggling to get the developer community to pitch in,” Chris Antlitz, principal analyst for telecom at TBR Insights, explained during a post-MWC Barcelona podcast.

Antlitz did note that there has been some progress toward these efforts, “but if you look at the big picture and where they need to go in terms of scaling, in terms of building business models around these, in terms of institutionalizing and changing their ways of working to make network APIs and enablement platform, we're not seeing that. There's what is being said and there's what's being done.”