The Global API Exchange Proposition for Operators
Leonard Lee
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Key Takeaways
Aduna was announced by Ericsson in September of 2024 under a temporary name of NewCo to mixed reaction by the industry. Many voices in the analyst community cited that the industry had tried this before with TM Forum’s Open API conceived back in 2013. To date the network API movement has been driven by industry consortium and the hope that a bottom-up developer-based approach would bring about an “API economy”, or more substantially, a “network capability economy”.
The trying continues with the announcement of GSMA’s Open Gateway Initiative and funding of Linux Foundation Project CAMARA in early 2023, and the subsequent announcement of Aduna in September of 2024.
“What’s different this time?”
As I established in my RCR Wireless News article, “Aduna: The cornerstone of an API-enabled telco future”, the Aduna exchange introduces what its stakeholders propose will be a global exchange of network capabilities transacted via network APIs. As a global exchange, Aduna aspires to implement the spirit and intent of the Open Gateway Initiative and TM Forum’s Open API manifesto. As is the case with the Aduna charter and mission, a network API exchange will need to provide an open and neutral platform for the regulatory-compliant pooling of the network capabilities and data of participating operators. In doing so, it will need to establish itself as a platform for the trusted and secure transacting of network API requests across a logically aggregated global network.
“It’s the grease that makes the flywheel turn…”
In order to holistically understand the value of a network API exchange to operators and other constituents, it is important to be clear on its two identities. One modality is as a technical platform; the other is as the aforementioned globally trusted exchange. I call out the two roles because we often talk about the former and rarely the later.
As a technical platform, a network API exchange such as Aduna will function as what is widely referred to as a “network API aggregator”. In practical and technical terms, network APIs are not aggregated. Rather, a network API exchange will commercially and logically aggregate exposed network (and eventually edge computing) capabilities and the associated commitments of participating operators.
In its role as a trusted exchange, Aduna will function as a trust broker between operators, partners, and developers with the objective of catalyzing markets for exposed network capabilities. The hope is that establishing a trusted and neutral exchange will ease historically wary and reluctant operators into participation globally and reduce the cost of engagement for the industry.
The key value propositions of a global network API exchange for operators and partners such as Vonage and Google boil down to the four categories of market access, economic/market scale, and the monetization enablement and ROI acceleration of the operator’s 5G modernization investment.
Market Access
Market and Economic Scale
Monetization Enablement
Modernization ROI Acceleration
In order for operators to tune into the value of participating in a global API exchange, it is important to understand the role and intent of these entities in the grand scheme of the operator’s 5G SA transition and transformation, and the broader reinvention of the telco industry. In particular, operators will want to consider the value and the cost of participating in these network API exchanges with clear perspective on how they are situated in the extended telco value chain as depicted below.
Implications for Tech & Business Leaders?
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Some really good stuff here Leonard. It’s more complex than many believed when they started down the API pathway. But there’s a few outstanding questions, such as “where do private 5G networks fit?”. The classic telco view would place them on the right of that chart, as sliced & maybe aggregated parts of the public MNO networks. But in reality, they might be parts of the *cloud* part on the left - just another function & component of enterprise IT/OT, alongside Ethernet & WANs & IoT etc. I’d also say that the “potential in non-mobile applications” is the present and history of network APIs, not really the “frontier”. The mobile industry is the laggard for programmability. **this comment refers to your follow-up comment on enterprise frameworks.
Tech Industry Advisor & Realist dedicated to making you constructively uncomfortable. Ring the bell ?? and subscribe to next-curve.com for the tech and industry insights that matter!
4 天前Here is a framework that I concocted from my exploration of how network APIs will enabled innovations on top of the network. I see the challenge that a lot of folks have with network APIs is firstly, the focus on APIs themselves, then considering APIs in isolation rather than in how they can be used at a higher level above the stack. If you do think through this framework you start to see some very interesting possibilities that I outlined in my Aduna piece. READ HERE -> https://www.rcrwireless.com/20250117/analyst-angle/aduna-api-enabled-telco-future-analyst-angle Network APIs will have a very interesting in role in providing information off the network that can foster visibility to things on the network, their past and present state (maybe even predicted), and the state of the network. Then you have the connectivity related stuff that can invoke Ericsson calls differentiated connectivity services and capabilities. The other thing that becomes apparent is that the applications that network APIs augment or enable don't have to be mobile applications. A very interesting frontier for network APIs is their potential in non-mobile applications.
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1 周What exactly will this mean for end users?