Telefonica: Universal Operator APIs Have Significant Value

Chema Alonso, Chief Digital Officer of Telefonica, recently discussed the possibility of ultra large companies or other resellers taking a dominant position in providing the value of universal operator APIs, supporting the significant benefits to the industry.
During an online event, Alonso emphasized that Telefonica has been selling API based capabilities for ten years, but he is confident that a unified API accessed through aggregators and ultra large companies can open up new sources of revenue for the company.
He pointed out, “Actually, I don’t think value lies in channels. Of course, channels have value, but 5G antennas belong to telecommunications companies.” He added that operators also have a range of capabilities and professional knowledge, citing experience in creating drone highways and remote driving networks.

He also pointed out that operators can provide services to various third parties by covering aggregators, cloud providers, and developer communities. There are many channels targeting the developer community today, and in order to fully understand, we would like to participate in all of them, “Alonso added.
Telefonica was one of the early supporters of the GSMA Open Gateway program, which aimed to provide access to universal operator APIs.
The operator is the national champion of Brazil and its own country, Spain, in promoting the plan.
Alonso stated that the company plans to launch in Brazil this month, with the goal of launching in Spain in January 2024.
This enthusiastic supporter of the plan predicts that the GSMA Open Gateway plan will expand access to operator network capabilities to cover smaller players currently facing problems.
He added, “We have many valuable capabilities for digital creators, but our complexity makes it difficult for startups, innovators, or small companies to handle 700 telecommunications companies. Therefore, our capabilities are only used by companies large enough to handle our complexity.”
The executive added that the main purpose of the GSMA Open Gateway program is to eliminate these barriers, so that every developer and small company can “consume our capabilities with one line of code and only pay for usage fees” without the need for multiple meetings and interactions.