Having spent around two decades watching others profit from the infrastructure it built, the telecoms sector is now pushing to reclaim control over the value layer it enabled but never fully monetised. Streaming video, enterprise messaging and cloud storage have followed the same script with stubborn consistency, as operators fund the network while tech platforms take the upside.
Open APIs, backed by the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative and the CAMARA standards framework, mark the industry’s most credible attempt to rewrite that equation. This shift is enabling a ‘radical re-structuring’ of the telco world, as operators open up network services via APIs and reorient towards partner-driven platform models. Developers can now tap carrier functions like SIM-swap verification, location and quality-of-service management, or fraud detection, effectively turning telcos into platform businesses.
The real strategic risk, however, is not that operators fail to build APIs. Most are building them. The danger is that they fail to operate and iterate them with the speed and developer-centricity of a technology platform.
Network APIs reshape telecoms revenue battles
The scale of the opportunity is substantial, with analysts converging on a clear directional consensus even as their definitions vary. McKinsey predicts that telecoms operators have the opportunity to capture US$100 billion to US$300 billion in connectivity and edge compute revenue in the next five to seven years through network APIs, with US$10 billion to US$30 billion of that coming directly from APIs. But in today’s market structure, carriers stand to give away up to two-thirds of that value to cloud providers and API aggregators.
Analysys Mason identified that people and companies will spend money on CAMARA-based network APIs. They say this will go up from US$550 million in 2024 to US$7.6 billion by 2030. This could be a part of the money people make from mobile services by 2035. This will only happen if the ecosystem does well and people start using it.
IDC forecasts that telecoms API revenues will go up from $700 million in 2023 to US$6.7 billion in 2028, marking an increase of about 57% every year. Juniper Research also expects operators to make a lot of money from APIs. They say this will go up to over US$8 billion by 2030, a jump from US$284 million in 2025. Meanwhile, Gartner estimates that the network API market will be big too. They say it will grow to US$5.03 billion by 2028, led by 5G, IoT, edge computing and strategic partnerships.
Consistent across all these predictions is that the revenue share for the operators to capture, as against aggregators and clouds, will be much more a function of product and ecosystem strategy and less by network quality.
Consortia unite operators around universal APIs
The GSMA Open Gateway initiative now covers approximately 79% of the global mobile market, with 73 operator groups representing 285 networks worldwide committed to the programme. Industry consortia consisting of TM Forum, GSMA CAMARA/Open Gateway and MEF Mplify are rallying operators around common APIs, so developers can write once and deploy globally.
Ecosystem metrics through 2025 indicate that security and anti-fraud APIs continue to be dominant, representing two-thirds of commerical deployments, while quality on demand APIs now account for 25% of new launches, up from under 10% in 2024.
There are 43 active channel partners in the ecosystem, who are critical in bridging operator APIs to enterprise demand at scale. Financial services, software and government rank among the top industries most likely to use network APIs, while healthcare leads in active deployments.
Ericsson-led Aduna joint venture, in which 12 global operators, including AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, hold a collective 50% equity stake, is the clearest structural signal that the federated model is gaining traction over pure aggregation.
Agile product teams redefine how telcos build APIs
Signing up to Open Gateway is table stakes. Governing an API catalogue with the rigour and iteration speed of a software product team is where most operators have structural gaps.
An API catalogue is not a registry, but more of a product portfolio. It demands product owners with the authority to deprecate, reprice, bundle and launch at sprint cadence, not at annual planning cycles. Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for API Management notes that the full lifecycle mandate, including retirement, is culturally uncomfortable for telcos, where network capabilities have historically been permanent features, not deprecated SKUs.
Agile operators are forming small, focused teams of engineers, product owners and marketers around specific API portfolios or vertical solutions. They launch APIs quickly in basic form and improve them continuously using developer feedback and usage data. Security, privacy and interoperability are built into development pipelines from the start, with GSMA Open Gateway and TM Forum CAMARA certifications ensuring cross-operator consistency. Importantly, these teams cannot wait for enterprise demand to develop on its own.
The EY Reimagining Industry Futures Study 2025 highlights that while nearly half of businesses are investing in generative AI and 33% in 5G, only 16% have active IoT deployments and 22% have active edge computing deployments. Demand must be stimulated through developer experience, use-case evangelism and commercial model flexibility.
Telcos scale APIs through developer ecosystems
Operators aren’t going it alone. Carriers are collaborating with cloud and CPaaS players to distribute their APIs at scale. Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom and others have opened up marketplaces where businesses can find and subscribe to carrier APIs. Deals with AWS, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, Infobip and Vonage bring network functionality to developers’ homes.
Three aspects of governance have become essential if these ecosystems are to be developed and maintained. Versioning of the API and deprecation policy is very important as developers need to be assured that the interface won’t break unexpectedly and planned versioning cadence, long known in SaaS but still evolving in many telco IT environments help protect developer trust and enable catalog growth.
Commercial model governance is equally important, as operators that cannot rapidly experiment with per-transaction pricing, tiered access and aggregator revenue sharing risk losing relevance to more agile platforms. Partner onboarding velocity has also become a defining capability, with the speed at which operators can onboard, certify and commercially activate partners now functioning as a core element of product execution rather than a back-end process.
Use cases driving adoption
Concrete enterprise use cases are materialising and creating self-reinforcing demand:
- Banking and financial services integrate network-based SIM Swap APIs to combat identity fraud
- Streaming and gaming platforms use dynamic QoS APIs to ensure glitch-free experiences
- Logistics companies utilise location verification and edge-route selection for real-time tracking
- Healthcare leads active deployments among developer communities engaging with mobile operators
Each successful use case creates pull, drawing in more developers and encouraging more carriers to participate. Often compared to the platform strategies of Apple and Google, the cycle is exactly what telecoms analysts have been urging operators to replicate for years.
Kaleido Intelligence Open APIs Network Capabilities Outlook 2025 highlights potential of network API access to enhance user experience, create monetisation opportunities and increase customer retention. It identifies IoT as a particularly underexploited opportunity, with enhanced user experience, new revenue streams, and increased customer retention as key vectors for operators willing to broaden their API catalogue beyond identity and fraud.
Network APIs rise as top telco growth driver
McKinsey places network APIs among the highest-priority strategic plays for telco value creation, noting that B2B ICT, expanding from core connectivity into cloud, cybersecurity, and managed services, could account for as much as 20% of total revenue for leading operators.
Operators pulling ahead have internalised three disciplines simultaneously: the technical discipline of API standardisation via CAMARA, the commercial discipline of developer experience and partner economics, and the organisational discipline of agile product teams empowered to govern catalogues at speed. These are not three different streams of work, but one operating model, and it appears less like a traditional telco and more like a platform business that owns the network.
Between 2025 and 2030, Analysys Mason cautions that developments will be critical in establishing foundations for a market that could expand by a factor of eight, necessitating that participants take a long-term view. Clearly, the pressure to get out of the land-grab window will not stay open forever.
For agile operators, the time to move is now.
Anna Ribeiro