Ericsson completed its transaction of the API platform Aduna in a joint venture between the company and other telecom leaders.

Half of the equity venture will be held by Ericsson, with the remaining half held in combination by AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone.

Most of the above companies were named in the launch of Aduna in late 2024, with América Móvil missing from the updated partner pool, and Japan’s KDDI joining the venture in February of this year.

On the dev side, Google Cloud and Ericsson subsidiary Vonage were key players in the original development of the API platform, which produces network APIs designed for hyperscalers, communications platform-as-a-service providers, system integrators, and independent software vendors.

Aduna CEO, Anthony Bartolo, commented on the deal: “In just ten months, we have built an impressive ecosystem comprising the biggest names in telecoms and the wider ICT industry.

“The closing provides renewed motivation for Aduna to accelerate the adoption of network APIs by developers on a global scale. This includes encouraging more telecom operators to join the new company, further driving the industry and developer experience.”

APIs in the telecom sector

Upon its launch in September 2024, AT&T told SDxCentral that it joined the Aduna initiative to encourage new business models for communication providers to monetize features of their 5G networks through application software.

The carrier was optimistic about a large go-to-market channel to Vonage and Google’s developer base.

Enthusiasm has also seen IDC predict that the global telecom and network API market will be generating north of $6 billion in revenues per year by 2028, while Nokia recently brought its network APIs to Google Cloud Marketplace.

Despite this, APIs remain a tough sell in the sector. The open source Camara project – the API standard from which Aduna follows – told SDxCentral last month it remains challenging to encourage developer buy-in, with analysts questioning whether telecom operators can reap rewards from the API ecosystem.

But with most of the original partner list seeing out its completion this week, Aduna is arguably the strongest hope for API success in telecoms, as bolstered by the participation of hyperscalers like Microsoft, which joined as a technology partner in June.

Ericsson will likely see the deal as a silver lining in light of its Vonage Holdings investment fallout, with CEO Börje Ekholm adamant last year that network API capabilities would make the $6.2 billion investment worthwhile in the long run.