Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:24):
Hello, you're watching the Network APIs and Agents Summit and the final programme for this year's event. I'm Guy Daniels and we are live on TelecomTV to wrap up this year's discussion around network APIs. Hopefully you've just watched the three panels and our special GSMA Open Gateway webinar. If not, you'll soon be able to catch them on demand here on TelecomTV. And I mentioned the webinar because — three years after Open Gateway was unveiled — what is the status now of the global network API ecosystem? Where's the real value? Is it in the API specs themselves, or in an exchange such as Aduna? Are telcos looking the wrong way at API monetisation? Loads of questions, and to address these I am pleased to say that returning to join me live on the programme is Leonard Lee, who is Executive Analyst at neXt Curve and the creator of a number of excellent reports and briefing notes in this area.

(01:31):
Hi, Leonard. Welcome back. Thanks so much for joining us on the live show. So we've come to the end of this year's Network API Summit — to which we have affixed the phrase "and Agents." We've been running this in one form or another for about three years now, and I feel personally we are all still trying to get a handle on this business. So perhaps I can start by asking you: maybe the network API market hasn't moved as fast as the early expectations promised. Where do you see the genuine bright spots today? What's really working now?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (02:11):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll start by answering your question with a question: which network API market? The one I'm referring to in my work — the series of pieces I've written — is what I call the global network API market. This would be the market that is an expression of the GSMA Open Gateway initiative, their vision and their charter. And let's face it: if you have a network API standard spec, that doesn't mean that you have a market and monetisation. There's still a lot of work that has to be done to get to the point where markets have critical mass, where you have adoption and developer mindshare. And I think these are processes and steps that the industry and ecosystems still have to go through. And let's also be fair — it's been less than two years since the announcement of many of these global and regional network API marketplaces.

(03:27):
And the emergence of network API aggregators and exchanges such as Nokia Network as Code, Bridge Alliance, API Exchange, and of course Aduna Global — these are only less than two years old. In fact, Aduna Global went live less than a year ago. So we're still pretty early in the evolution and formation of these ecosystems, and it takes time. I think the industry needs to have a little patience. Yes, there were some pretty big numbers floated a few years ago about the size of the monetisation opportunity and the market, but at this point it's about brass tacks. The different ecosystems forming today are at the point where they're getting their supply side ready. We have Aduna, which is touting I think 40 operators in their partnership; Bridge Alliance with 36 across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

(04:46):
And Nokia Network as Code has a similar range of operators engaged as well. So in terms of bright spots, I would say the ecosystem seems to have found a low-hanging fruit — and that happens to be trust and security applications. And I think this is actually timely, because AI — while a lot of folks like to tout the aspirational revolution it promises to bring — is also bringing with it increased agentic AI-augmented fraud and privacy threats. And I think these trust and security applications are going to be important going forward and should present a pretty good opportunity for operators at a global scale.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (05:41):
Great. Thanks very much, Leonard. And we're going to pick up on some of those areas in more detail. As you said, there were some very large numbers mentioned in terms of market size a few years ago — I think we've moved past that now and are looking a bit more at reality. And as you also identified, this really is early days for the global network API market. I want to come onto this question of monetisation, because we get a lot of viewer questions about this as well. There still seems to be a question mark over it. Do you see it as a timing and maturity problem, or is there something more structural that needs to be addressed?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (06:17):
I think there's a little bit of both. One of the things I suggest in the pieces I've written is that we really need to look at the ecosystem structure and formation, and ensure it's aligned with the state of the market and the overall readiness of the ecosystem to deliver on certain types of products and capabilities — call them APIs if you want, but these are still outstanding questions that haven't been answered, because the horses just took off from the gates and everyone is frantically pursuing monetisation. And the challenge is: you really do need products and services before you get to monetisation. So what exactly are you monetising? And recently at DTW Ignite 2026, which took place in Copenhagen just last week, I had a slide that said: you don't really monetise APIs.

(07:32):
What you do is monetise services and products. So you really do need a product, and participating operators need to figure out how to onboard and work through the interworking requirements — figuring out how to deliver services in a harmonisable way. And then the API exchanges and aggregators need to be able to support the right monetisation mechanisms. Then you get to a point where you holistically have the capability to not only deliver value up the stack, but to monetise on the way back down. The trick is to figure out what that value chain looks like. There's a lot of talk about business models — well, we don't have the business model yet — but that usually pertains to a certain layer of the ecosystem stack. The question is: what does the overall value chain look like, and how does value traverse across each of these layers, from the network APIs to the end-user application — whether it's B2C — all the way back down in terms of monetisation for all the service providers and developers that are part of the ecosystem.

(09:02):
These are things the industry is still trying to figure out, and they are prevailing questions. You hear them at every conference you go to.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (09:15):
You do indeed. And as you say, you need a product — telcos need a product first. So we heard earlier in the summit, and specifically on the GSMA webinar, about number verification and these security and trust use cases like number verification and SIM Swap — they seem to have become the early leaders here, while the more network-focused APIs like quality on demand that we hear a lot of talk about aren't quite there yet. Why do you think that is?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (09:48):
Well, one is easy and the other is not — in simple terms. In one of my papers, I talk about how there are really two classes of network APIs. One is informational and the other is transactional. What I mean by transactional is that there are a set of interfaces that invoke and manage a network service — and last week I had a chat with a telco executive who referred to it as a "hard network service." That's different from these more informational, data-based APIs. So you could say that a large majority of the security and trust-related APIs fall into the informational class, and data is easier to deal with. Exchange of information is, let's call it, less complex than figuring out how to transact network services. QoD is complex, and the question for QoD is: QoD for what — quality on demand for what?

(11:19):
And if you think about it, that API is kind of a general-purpose API, and you have to be clear about the product and service you're trying to invoke in supporting end-user applications. So the definition of that product — or let's call it a network solution that rides on top of these network APIs including QoD — needs to specify exactly what network capability and service we're trying to invoke and what needs of the application we're trying to meet. That's a much more complicated thing, which also depends heavily on the operator's network capability as well as the level of interworking across the portfolio of participating operators. So it's much more challenging, and we can expect this to lag a little — especially when it comes to global network APIs.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (12:40):
I do like that phrase you heard from the telco executive — "hard network services." I'm going to be using that a lot more. I want to move on though. You mentioned interworking just there. In your recent report, you suggest that CAMARA fosters what you call an "illusion of interoperability" — a fascinating term. What do you mean by that exactly, and what's the risk for operators or developers who assume they're working in a plug-and-play environment?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (13:12):
Yeah, maybe "illusion of interoperability" sounds a little harsh, but here's the thing: APIs enable interoperability. When you look at the ecosystem and what it has to do, it needs to engineer and deliver interoperability. And obviously a standardised API is a huge enabler of that — but you also need to factor in integration. Operators need to map to and integrate with these API standards and then work through the interworking aspects, not only with their own systems but with other networks of participating operators. And so there's a good deal of complexity that has to be dealt with before you actually get to interoperability. Now the good thing about the APIs is that they do provide developers with that facade of interoperability, and that has practical benefits. The challenge now is: how do you actually foster and deliver on that interoperability by working through all the tough stuff that we have yet to see the ecosystem work its way through?

(14:45):
It's a work in progress. And the thing I want to emphasise is: just because you have APIs does not mean that API magic happens. There's still a lot of work that has to be done, and I think the industry needs to appreciate that.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (15:02):
Great. Thanks, Leonard. We've spoken about identifying value during the summit and also in our earlier chat there. And if I read this correctly, you're stating that the API exchange is the centre of the value chain — explicitly not a wholesaler or an aggregator. Why does this distinction matter so much?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (15:26):
Well, we've heard the leadership of Aduna and Ericsson very early on characterise the business model of Aduna Global as being — let's say — for cost. It's a semi-for-profit entity, but more importantly it's independent of Ericsson, and it's also really modelled very similarly to a commodities exchange or a stock exchange — or at least the early days of these exchanges, where members basically got together to create a large-scale market for their stuff. And in this case, the stuff is network APIs. And the whole purpose of the exchange model is to take the friction out of the market, to minimise transaction costs, to provide trust, to provide regulatory compliance support, to provide — especially in the case of network APIs — consent and security. So there are all these things that are foundationally important for a market to develop, especially a global one, that exchanges provide beyond just doing the aggregation piece.

(17:07):
And so one of the ways I look at exchanges is almost like a disaggregated model — our traditional notion of an aggregator, kind of decoupled. You have that technical and product aggregation aspect separated from the actual market. And so you see Aduna and its peers basically enabling — and I think that's an important term — enabling the formation of markets and marketplaces. It has an enabling function rather than being the market itself.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (17:45):
Thanks, Leonard. Now a question we keep hearing repeated is: who are the developers? It's an important question, and yet the answer is often ambiguous. So do telcos need to know who developers are? Is it a problem for them? If so, how can they get over this?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (18:05):
Well, I think it's a question everyone needs to ask — all the participants — whether it's the hyperscaler participant, the ISV, the operator, the exchange operator, or the consortium. All parties really need to contemplate this, because it's a question that everyone is asking. And I talked about this quite a bit at DTW last week, as well as at a CPaaS dinner. The notion of the developer has largely been framed as an "enterprise developer," and we've seen a lot of very big numbers floated around in terms of the developer target market. But the question is: is that class of developer really the one that will help global network APIs and global API markets to scale?

(19:18):
Or is it more of a smaller community of developers who can actually appreciate and understand the nuances of the network? Because I think there's this assumption — and this might have been the early notion of CAMARA's service APIs — that if we simplify things, then just a regular developer off the street will be able to plug in and use network APIs. What we're seeing is that that's not necessarily the case. Developers largely don't know the network — it's a different universe for them. So is there a missing class of developer?

(20:07):
What I refer to as the network API developer — and last week some folks were raising the idea that we're missing the network solutions developer and also the network product manager, the person who develops services on top of network APIs. Where are those folks? Who are they? I think one of the things the industry needs to do is recognise that, number one, network APIs are not like CPaaS communications APIs or cloud APIs. They're different — it takes domain expertise to really understand how to use these things. So the question here is: how do you identify that group of developers who can innovate on top of network APIs? And I think that's the missing piece right now. I'm pretty confident that if the industry can focus on answering the question of who the developer is — and we arrive closer to what I've been talking about just now — we'll fill a very important gap in the conversation.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (21:33):
Yeah, let's hope so. Final question for now, Leonard — just for now. As you say, network APIs are different. You argue that a siloed focus on just network APIs actually undersells the opportunity. So what's the bigger picture? What could the future look like, and which domains do you think are going to help accelerate the adoption of APIs for telcos?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (22:00):
Yeah, I think one of the things we need to do — and this is just something I've noticed in years of engaging in and listening to conversations about network APIs — is that there's a tendency to look at network APIs in isolation. So: I have a catalogue of network APIs, and the big question is, how do you monetise each one of these things? I think the mindset shift that really needs to happen is the one I mentioned earlier — a network solutions focus and orientation that transcends this focus on network APIs. It's a recognition that network APIs are an enabler of network solutions, and there's a bigger picture here in what network solutions will do. Essentially, what you're looking at is pushing the frontier of what mobile computing is. And I'm not just talking about mobile wireless networking — I'm talking about computing broadly.

(23:07):
So the whole mobile computing revolution that created probably one of the biggest tech markets ever.

(23:16):
And it's really about how you channel operators' investments in 5G — and in the future, 6G — and how you channel these capabilities and investments in network modernisation along these evolutionary curves into redefining what mobile computing is. And I think one of the things to consider is how the nature of the network is changing. We have features such as integrated sensing, access and communications — ISAC — that's not a connectivity-related feature. It's a cyber-physical or physical AI-type feature. And so how do you start to tap these network capabilities and offer a new value proposition that will change what mobile computing can be in the future? That kind of thinking should help enable, or at least drive, some of the innovation that enables a new generation of applications. And again, this whole ideation process, this innovation process, still needs to be structured.

(24:49):
There are gaps — because we typically talk about network capabilities and then jump straight to monetisation without talking about how you're enabling or driving value to the end markets. And oftentimes we overshoot straight to use cases. We need to focus on the stuff in the middle that's going to change how mobile computing will be done in an AI era, for instance.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (25:19):
Such potential — so long as we do it right. Well, thanks, Leonard. A really insightful look there at the state of the global network API ecosystem. Well, it's time now to check in on our audience poll for the Network APIs and Agents Summit. We've been running our annual poll all week and you've been casting your votes. The question we are asking this year is: where should operators prioritise investment to build successful API-driven digital platforms? And hopefully there they go — you can see the real-time votes appearing right here alongside me. And as you can see, security and identity APIs is the top area at the moment. There's a tight bunch in the middle. Currently at the bottom we've got marketplace and partner onboarding, and developer portals and sandboxes. Interesting. If you've yet to vote, then please do so now — you have until the end of this week, it takes less than a minute to cast your vote and have your say.

(26:29):
And next week, my colleague Ray Le Maistre will analyse the results right here on TelecomTV. So Leonard, coming back to you now — you've seen our snapshot of the viewer poll. What do you make of those votes, especially the apparent lack of love for marketplace and developers?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (26:49):
That's an interesting one. I think it's actually one that should be prioritised, because the ecosystem needs to onboard operators — they need to get the whole supply side going, and it's not as easy as it might seem. Shortening those cycle times is really important, and market formation is important. Again, the API stuff is easy. Creating markets, developing the products, getting the ecosystem to support those products — those are really the priorities. And again, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier: too much focus on the API, not enough looking holistically at the ecosystem and how it should evolve and mature. I think that's something that could work against healthy ecosystem and market development.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (27:55):
Thanks, Leonard. And as I said, if you want to influence the poll and have your say, you've got to vote — so please don't miss out. Anyone who hasn't voted yet, please vote, and we may see those numbers change. We've also received a large number of questions from viewers for this summit. Many of them were concerning the GSMA webinar, so I'll make sure those questions get forwarded to the GSMA right after this show. We've had quite a few others that have already been answered in the preceding panels and also in our in-depth analysis just now. But there is one final question here we could perhaps address from a viewer. Let me read this one out, Leonard, and see what you make of it. Is there a readiness criteria for telcos to be able to offer and use network APIs?

(28:48):
Is there anything they must do first?

Leonard Lee, neXt Curve (28:50):
Yes. I guess the simple answer is yes. And I think it really depends — going back to what we discussed earlier — on the requirements of the product, the network solution, or let's call it the underlying network service capability. Does the operator have what it takes to support that particular API? So it's a nuanced answer to what is a nuanced question.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (29:30):
I wouldn't expect anything less Of you, Leonard. Yeah. What do I think? I think they should just get on and do it. Let's get going. Let's move this forward and let's create a marketplace. Leonard, we must leave it there for now because that's all the time we have. Thanks very much, Leonard, for taking part in our programme and giving us a really in-depth look at the global network API marketplace. It's been great. And that brings to a close our Network APIs and Agents Summit for another year. Thanks to all of our guests and sponsors, and to all of you for watching and taking part. Now, our next summit is not until October, when the Cloud Native Telco Summit returns. However, we shall be live in Düsseldorf in September for the AI Native Telco Forum — I hope you can join us there in person. Full details are on our website.

(30:23):
For now though, thank you very much for watching, and goodbye.