PLDT and Smart hop on GSMA Open Gateway bandwagon - Developing Telecoms

PLDT – along with wireless subsidiary Smart Communications and B2B arm PLDT Enterprise – announced on Thursday they are joining the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative for standardised open network APIs.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the GSMA, PLDT and Smart will have access to the Open Gateway framework that promises interoperable access to mobile networks through the Linux Foundation’s standards-based CAMARA repository.

Mitch Locsin, first VP and head of Enterprise and International Core Business at PLDT and Smart, said that common APIs available via the initiative will not only enable faster deployment of new services and secure digital experiences, but also pave the way to a more immersive 5G experience for customers.

“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,” Locsin said in a statement.

Julian Gorman, head of GSMA Asia Pacific, noted that PLDT and Smart join more than 50 mobile operator groups, representing more than 240 MNOs and MVNOs, who have already signed on to GSMA Open Gateway.

“APIs are going to enable everybody to deliver a better customer experience, to innovate and to help digital transformation,” he said.

PLDT and Smart represent the first Filipino operators to join the Open Gateway initiative.

The Open Gateway framework enable developers to access standardised mobile network APIs to create new services that are interoperable with other networks with the same APIs.

In the wake of this year’s Mobile World Congress event in February, numerous operators have launched commercial services using Open Gateway APIs mainly related to fraud prevention, such as number verification, SMS two-factor authentication, SIM swap, and device location.

Meanwhile, the Open Gateway project is also set to expand via a partnership announced earlier this week between GSMA and TM Forum at the latter’s DTW24 – Ignite event.

Under that partnership, TM Forum and GSMA will collaborate to develop a complete set of APIs to monetize network capabilities using TM Forum’s Open API standards and the CAMARA service APIs under the Open Gateway initiative.

The idea is that Operate APIs developed by TM Forum members will enable CAMARAs APIs to be managed as products for developers to consume and pay for network services. According to TM Forum, that will enables communications service providers (CSPs) to offer network services more efficiently and establish “a global marketplace for network monetization of APIs.”

TM Forum also announced it is collaborating with MEF to harmonise MEF’s APIs with TM Forum's Gen5 Open API standards to streamline automation within the MEF Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) domain, including Carrier Ethernet and IP services, SD-WAN and E2E network slicing, SASE, SSE and ZTNA delivered across a global partner ecosystem.