Asia telcos join GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative

• The GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative continues to attract telco supporters
• A number of operators in south-east Asia are the latest to sign up
• The addition of the new signatories coincides with the GSMA’s latest MWC Shanghai event

The GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, which is helping network operators with a common way to expose their application programmable interfaces (APIs) to application developers, now has 53 operators representing 245 networks and more than two-thirds of global mobile connections signed up to the industry scheme. 

The number of operators supporting the initiative, which the GSMA describes as a “framework of network APIs that provides developers with universal access to operator networks, designed to speed up the creation of new digital products and services,” tipped over the 50 mark in recent days, following a number of additions from the south-east Asia telco community. 

Two subsidiaries of PLDT, the largest operator in the Philippines, are among the new cohort. Mobile operator Smart Communications and business-to-business services operation PLDT Enterprise have joined the growing throng. “To PLDT and Smart, common APIs promise to enable faster deployment of new services and safer and more secure digital experiences, as well as pave the way to a more immersive 5G experience, for Filipino business owners, enterprises, and mobile subscribers,” noted the operator in this announcement. 

Mitch Locsin, first vice president and head of enterprise and international core business at PLDT and Smart, noted: “Digital transformation has always been our common goal – to help businesses, individuals and organisations, not just locally but globally. This collaboration marks a leap towards new innovation, aligning with our shared commitment to driving the success of our partners through impactful solutions. By joining GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, we aim to provide seamless communication, more secure transactions, efficient data handling, and an overall improved user experience for our partners and their customers.” 

Julian Gorman, head of GSMA Asia Pacific, added: “APIs are going to enable everybody to deliver a better customer experience, to innovate and to help digital transformation. This will be a new era of collaboration across the industry, which will help our industry move forward. The Philippines is a rising star, reemerging on the world stage in telecoms innovation. We thank PLDT and Smart for joining the programme,” gushed Gorman. 

PLDT’s main local rival, Globe Telecom, has also signed up. “Today marks a milestone for Globe as we embrace the GSMA Open Gateway initiative, teaming up with [more than 50] mobile network operators to develop mobile network open APIs,” stated Globe’s president and CEO, Ernest Cu. “This groundbreaking effort allows real-time access and interconnection with the Globe network via open global APIs, opening up numerous opportunities for delivering more value to our customers and generating new revenue streams,” he noted. 

In addition, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom and CTM, the Citic Telecom-owned service provider in Macau (the autonomous administrative region off the south coast of China), were also unveiled as Open Gateway signatories this week by the GSMA as part of the opening announcement for the MWC Shanghai event that has just opened its doors. The GSMA also noted that Alibaba Cloud has joined the initiative as a channel partner.

The GSMA’s CTO, Alex Sinclair, noted during his recent appearance at TelecomTV’s DSP Leaders World Forum in Windsor, UK that 28 APIs have now been published as part of the initiative and that the GSMA team is now focused on attracting channel partners that can help market the standardised APIs to developers and enterprises.

As was pointed out during the forum that exposing network APIs offers telcos the opportunity to develop new business opportunities and generate new revenues, especially as generative AI (GenAI) applications become more widely used. However, it’s important that the network operator community not only collaborates but takes action in order not to miss the business and customer engagement opportunities that network API exposure can deliver – see Network APIs? Let’s get on with it.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV