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AWS is teaming with top operators including Verizon, T-Mobile, Orange and Telefonica to make their network APIs accessible to developers
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AWS said it will facilitate portability of applications across different connectivity providers and countries
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The ability to tap network information will enable the creation of new applications that weren’t possible before, AWS said
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is sailing full steam ahead into telco application programming interface (API) waters and it is bringing its hardened crew of developers with it.
The cloud giant earlier this month inked a deal to bring Vonage’s fraud detection APIs to its marketplace, but the effort it announced around MWC is much, much bigger. AWS said it is teaming with global operators including Verizon, T-Mobile, Telefonica, Orange and Liberty Global to provide developers with access to network APIs.
AWS billed the move as a win-win for developers and operators. It will give the former a familiar and consistent development experience as well as help with portability of applications across different service providers via API abstraction. And the latter is getting a new go-to-market channel through which they can push broader adoption of network APIs. Huzzah.
Among other use cases, AWS said developers are already working on leveraging telco APIs for autonomous vehicles, industrial XR, financial services and gaming. So, basically, the usual suspects.
Open Gateway
But AWS wasn’t the only one with API news at MWC Barcelona. Show host GSMA provided an update on the Open Gateway initiative it launched at MWC in 2023.
It said 47 mobile operator groups accounting for 65% of global connections have signed on to Open Gateway, with 94 APIs having already been made commercially available to developers in 21 markets.
“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,” GSMA Director General Mats Granryd said in a statement.
It plans to do this by ramping developer engagement through cloud marketplace channels (aka, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Vonage), technology partners like Nokia and Ericsson and operator direct-to-market programs.
We’ve certainly seen the Vonage efforts coming through and we’ll keep a close eye on the rest as they duke it out for API marketplace dominance. Stay tuned!
This story was originally published on our sister site Silverlinings.
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