By Oystein Bergmann, Bureau Chief, Scandinavia

The GSMA February 26  outlined the strong progress the mobile industry, and technology partners, are making in unlocking the full potential of 5G networks and commercialising network APIs through the GSMA Open Gateway initiative.

A year since GSMA Open Gateway was unveiled at MWC 2023, 47 mobile operator groups, representing 239 mobile networks and 65 per cent of connections around the world, have now signed up to the initiative. GSMA Open Gateway is focused on accelerating the growth of digital services and apps, by ensuring they integrate seamlessly with hundreds of participating networks around the world. This is done through single, programmable, access points, which are common among all mobile operators, known as Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs).

Working with technology partners and cloud providers, including AWS, Infobip, Microsoft, Nokia and Vonage, a part of Ericsson, more than 40 mobile operator networks have now made a combined total of 94 APIs commercially available to enterprise developers in 21 markets across Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

With online fraud and cybercrime being one of the biggest issues facing online commerce, the GSMA, mobile operators and technology partners are first focusing the GSMA Open Gateway initiative on tackling online crime. Recent activities include:

Four Sri Lankan operators who have launched three APIs on a single operator platform providing robust authentication to secure customer online transactions;

Three Brazilian operators who have launched three APIs to combat fraud;

Three Spanish operators who have announced the launch of two anti-fraud APIs, working with online retailers;

Four Indonesian operators who launched three APIs to improve online security and customer experience; and

Three South African operators who are combatting fraud and digital identity theft in sectors including banking, finance, insurance, and retail through two new APIs.

Three German operators who have today made two APIs available to help app developers and enterprises tackle online fraud and protect the digital identities of mobile customers.

“It’s been an exciting year for GSMA Open Gateway, and the mobile industry, where we have begun to build a unified ecosystem and unlock the full potential of 5G networks. This has culminated in the birth of a new API era,” said Director-General of the GSMA Mats Granryd,. “Our collective job for 2024 is to nurture and grow this opportunity and provide ubiquitous access to enterprise developers and cloud providers, so they can do what they do best, which is launch game changing new services that can maximise the benefits of 5G networks.”

Focus For 2024: Growing Commercial & Monetisation Opportunties

According to research by McKinsey, GSMA Open Gateway and other network API initiatives can unlock significant value for the telecommunications industry, and businesses using 5G networks over the next six years. It’s forecast that, if operators can expose more of their network APIs and innovations to enterprise developer and cloud provider communities, then they can unlock an additional US$300bn market opportunity by 2030.

Having built strong support amongst the global mobile operator industry in 2023, the GSMA Open Gateway initiative is focusing on how it can help members ramp up developer engagement in 2024. This will be achieved through the commercial launch of new services and a focus on three go-to-market commercial channels for open API adoption.

GSMA Open Gateway’s three main go-to-market channels are:

Network Cloud Marketplace e.g. partnering with cloud providers including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Vonage

Strategic Technology Partners/Resellers e.g. Infobip, Nokia, and Ericsson

Operators Direct to Market through their enterprise and innovation divisions

The industry is now turning its attention to a whole array of new services and innovations, including Quality-on-Demand APIs to enable safe drone flight, robotics, extended reality and immersive online gaming services over 5G networks. The roadmap includes further development in connectivity for network slicing, cybersecurity and cloud enablement.

Chief Technologist for Telecom and Edge Cloud at Amazon Web Services at AWS, Ishwar Parulkar said: “The progress of GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative over the past year had been very encouraging. As we get into the next phase of telcos productizing more APIs and monetizing them through various go-to-market channels, the role of a common, aligned approach across operators, hyperscalers and other channel aggregators that Open Gateway is promoting becomes even more critical.”

Vice President, Google Cloud’s Telecom Industry and engineering for Google Distributed Cloud Ankur Jain said: “Google Cloud has engaged with the GSMA Open Gateway initiative since its inception, and we are pleased to see progress towards giving developers simplified access to network capabilities in an open, standardized, and aggregated way. We look forward to working with our CSP partners and developers to bring innovative use cases to market.”

Vice President, Product Management, Microsoft Azure for Operators, Ross Ortega said: “Microsoft proudly champions the Open Gateway initiative, underscoring our commitment to making network programmability universally accessible to developers of connected applications. We believe that the standardization of network capabilities and APIs is crucial for ensuring that developers can easily understand and adopt these technologies. Azure Programmable Connectivity is at the forefront of this effort, aligning closely with Open Gateway standards to pave the way for seamless integration and innovation.”

Other examples of how GSMA Open Gateway members and partners are working together to develop new industry use cases for developers include:

Nokia and Liberty Global have conducted successful trials in Port of Antwerp in Belgium, as part of the initiative, delivering high-definition video streams to remotely-located captains, to help them manoeuvre shipping vessels through busy areas.

Deutsche Telekom, O2 Telefónica and Vodafone are testing Quality on Demand APIs with Siemens Energy. Siemens is using the API to perform virtually assisted remote maintenance, using augmented reality, that requires consistently high network quality to enable broad deployment even in locations without stable connectivity.

VEON has announced the launch of Geolocation Gateway, with the first commercial implementation already in place in Uzbekistan.  A country-wide restaurant chain in Uzbekistan has worked with Beeline Uzbekistan and VEON Adtech, to grow its business through precision-marketing based on the Geolocation Gateway APIs.  Future potential use cases include financial fraud detection and emergency response.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Liberty Global have announced a collaboration to create a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) framework that enables developers to use and access Liberty Global’s fixed and mobile networks as a platform for innovation. The two companies will focus on sectors, such as home productivity, logistics/transportation, remote care/assistance to improve people’s lives across Liberty Global markets. Services will be based on GSMA Open Gateway standards and use CAMARA standard APIs to ensure worldwide standardization and wider adoption.

Microsoft’s Azure Programmable Connectivity (APC) has launched in public preview at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2024, featuring APIs like number verification and SIM swap among other capabilities. APC, building a robust partner ecosystem with global operators such as AT&T, BT, Claro, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, MEO, Rogers, Singtel, T-Mobile, Telefónica, TIM Brasil, Verizon, and Vivo, aims to extend its reach further. Enterprises like Banco Itaú Unibanco and NAGRA are adopting APC for developing network-aware applications, enhancing security, and combating fraud. Microsoft is also working with network technology partners and network programmability aggregators, such as Ericsson and Vonage, as well as Nokia and Nokia’s Network as Code platform, making concrete progress accelerating the ecosystem on network programmability.

Since the launch of the Open Gateway initiative Infobip has signed several collaboration agreements with network operators and ecosystem partners to use the platform, including Vivo, Claro, TIM Brazil, Vodafone and Orange Spain. New partnerships with Telefonica Spain, Personal Argentina, Veon Group and many more will happen in the near future.

Since launching its Network as Code platform with developer portal at the GSMA’s MWC Las Vegas in September 2023, Nokia has signed collaboration agreements with 10 network operators and ecosystem partners to use the platform, including BT, DISH, NOS Portugal, and Telia. Nokia is announcing new agreements with CSP partners in Belgium and Argentina as part of its MWC Barcelona 2024 presence.

In February 2024, Vonage launched Vonage Network Registry, a first-to-market developer registration service to accelerate and simplify developer access to network APIs. The service will also facilitate CSPs in effectively scaling the consumption of network APIs by standardising the approval process and granting access to network  providers’ APIs for Application Service Providers (ASPs). Vonage is working with multiple operators in Europe and North America including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, AT&T and Verizon to unlock programmable network  capabilities for developers, and with KDDI in Japan, who is reselling its communications APIs. Vonage also announced a collaboration with AWS to leverage communications and network APIs to accelerate the availability of new solutions to developers, along with a new Fraud Protection Solution to be made available in the AWS Marketplace.

GSMA Open Gateway APIs are defined, developed, and published in CAMARA, the open-source project for developers to access enhanced network capabilities, driven by the Linux Foundation, in partnership with TM Forum.