Will operators really be able to make money by opening up network APIs to content and application developers? And if they do, will it be through the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative?
These are the key questions that face operators who hold the line that they can become the intelligent pipe, adding value to applications by providing interfaces to advanced call control, messaging, location, billing or payment capabilities.
Michael Crossey, vp marketing of Aepona, whose technology sits behind the GSMA’s oneAPI programme, said that operators are stepping up their activity in this area. Although there is only one commercial pilot of OneAPI active at the moment, in Canada, Crossey is sure we will see more over the coming year, including something within Europe.
He also welcomed a recent $10 million investment into Aepona from Blackberry Partners Fund as evidence that there are “interesting developments in the whole apps space” currently under way.
Crossey said that although Aepona is profitable and could have continued organically, it saw the need to attract investment to be able to address increased market opportunities driven by operators being willing to open up network APIs.
The announcement last week by the Wholesale Applications Community that it will have a working community up and running in a year was a further small boost to the “intelligent pipe” view, given that it also gave a nod to the GSMA’s OneAPI initiative as complementary to its work on the device side APIs.
Crossey said that although other companies are offering operators this capability, such as Alcatel-Lucent through its Application Exposure Suite, it is the standards based approach of OneAPI that will give operators interoperabilitity of services.
The Canadian trial has created a hub that allows operators to provide services to users that aren’t their direct customers, he said.
Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research said that the mobile industry had proved that when it works together it can extract impressive results, so WAC and OneAPI hold promise in that respect. “There’s precedent there,” Beccue said. “When operators work to make something interoperable then it benefits all, but it takes a very, very long time.”
But he added, “Really it is the device APIs that make the applications very rich.”