Network APIs: We Can Compete Tomorrow, But We Have to Collaborate Today

‘Why should I care about network APIs?’ It’s a simple enough enterprise question, but perhaps not one our industry has a convincing enough answer for…

We talk about APIs as an extraordinary opportunity for communications providers. We discuss specifications, interoperability, coverage, commercial models and developer portals. We create catalogues containing Number Verification, SIM Swap, Device Location, Quality on Demand and many other capabilities.

All of this work is important. But when we present that catalogue to an enterprise, what exactly are we asking them to buy? Enterprises do not wake up one morning wanting three network APIs before breakfast. They wake up after a restless night wanting to reduce fraud, onboard customers faster, improve conversion, protect transactions and deliver better digital experiences.

They are interested in business outcomes, not, I’m afraid, in learning the internal language of the telecommunications industry. That distinction may decide whether network APIs become a genuinely transformative market or simply another promising technology that struggles to escape its own ecosystem.

So, why should an enterprise buy into network APIs?

Perhaps it should not. At least, not in the way we often package and present them today. An enterprise should buy a solution that reduces account takeover. It should buy a safer way to authorise a high-value payment. It should buy the ability to establish that a customer is genuine without forcing that customer through additional steps. It should buy fewer abandoned applications, less fraud and greater trust.

The APIs are how we create that outcome. They are not, by themselves, the outcome. Think about your car. Most drivers do not buy a collection of pistons, sensors, gears and software components. They buy mobility, reliability, comfort or perhaps the simple freedom to get somewhere. The engineering matters enormously, of course, but its value is realised when the components work together as a complete experience. It’s a collaboration.

Network APIs are no different. A SIM Swap API might provide an important signal. Number Verification might provide another. Device Location, account information and numbering intelligence can add further context. Individually, each capability is useful. Combined intelligently around a defined problem, they become a fraud-prevention solution, an onboarding solution, an authentication solution or a transaction-assurance solution. One API gives an enterprise a signal. A carefully orchestrated bundle can give it confidence.

So why, then, is collaboration necessary?

Why can one carrier, aggregator or technology provider not simply create the answer alone?

Because the customer’s problem does not stop at the edge of one network, one country or one company’s capabilities.

Enterprises operate across networks and borders. Their customers roam. Numbers move between carriers. Fraudsters deliberately exploit the seams between organisations, systems and jurisdictions. A solution that works brilliantly for only a fraction of an enterprise’s customers is not yet a complete solution.

A different API, contract, consent model or commercial arrangement in every market simply transfers complexity from our industry to the customer. We should not be surprised when the customer declines to accept it. This is where collaboration moves from being an admirable industry principle to becoming a commercial necessity.

No single participant holds every part of the answer. Carriers have unique, authoritative network intelligence. International carriers bring something equally important: the relationships, reach, infrastructure and operational experience that connect networks and markets across borders. Aggregators and platforms can simplify access and add value. Technology providers can combine signals, manage complexity and turn capabilities into usable products.

Enterprises understand the customer journeys, risks and outcomes that matter in the real world. When these perspectives are brought together, we should design from the problem backwards. Without that collaboration, we risk designing from the network outwards, and then wondering why the market has not followed us. Or understood us.

What’s in it for a carrier?

New revenue, certainly, but also something more fundamental: a new role in the digital economy. Carriers possess trusted capabilities that an application provider cannot simply recreate. Packaging those capabilities around real use cases turns the network from an invisible transport layer into an active engine of trust, security and digital experience.

And what is in it specifically for an international carrier?

A significant opportunity to extend its role beyond connectivity and transport, building on the global relationships, interconnection capabilities and commercial infrastructure it already possesses. International carriers understand how to make services work across different networks, countries and regulatory environments. That experience is invaluable when enterprises increasingly demand consistent, cross-border access to network intelligence.

By facilitating access to network APIs, aggregating capabilities and helping deliver solutions across multiple markets, international carriers can create new revenue streams, strengthen existing customer relationships and become more deeply involved in the enterprise value chain. Rather than simply transporting communications, they can help deliver the trust, intelligence and security that make digital services work. And importantly, they can do this without having to build every underlying capability themselves.

What is in it for an aggregator or platform provider?

The opportunity to remove fragmentation. The winning platforms will not merely place multiple APIs behind a common endpoint. They will make coverage, orchestration, compliance and consumption feel coherent. And they’ll make it easy for the enterprise. Their value lies in absorbing complexity so the enterprise doesn’t have to.

What is in it for vendors and solution providers?

A chance to innovate above the raw capability, to combine network intelligence with other data, workflows and decisioning to solve increasingly sophisticated problems.

And what is in it for the enterprise?

A solution that works. Less friction. Less fraud. Faster deployment. More conversion. Better LTVs. More confidence and a clear commercial outcome.

We must also collaborate on the difficult questions of coverage, business models, service consistency, privacy, consent, liability, commercial simplicity and measurable value. Can the solution be bought easily? Can it operate across the markets the customer cares about? Are its signals consistent enough to support a decision? Can the customer understand its return on investment? Can we explain it without beginning with the letters A, P and I?

And perhaps we need to be more pragmatic about the economics, too. Enterprises already pay for identity verification, authentication, fraud prevention and other services. Network APIs are entering an established market, not creating one from nothing. If the price of adopting them is significantly higher than the alternatives, or the value is not immediately apparent, why should an enterprise change what it is already doing?

We need commercial models that encourage adoption rather than inhibit it. That may mean individual providers accepting lower margins, or even loss-leading introductory pricing, to demonstrate value, stimulate demand and establish network APIs within existing enterprise workflows. The immediate priority should be making these capabilities commercially attractive enough for enterprises to use them at scale. As adoption grows, use cases mature and the value becomes measurable, sustainable pricing models can develop in response to market demand. There is little point in maximising the price of a service that nobody is buying.

If the answer to any of these questions is no, more work remains.

And this is precisely why the i3Forum’s Network APIs & Identity Work Group is so important.

It brings international carriers and the wider ecosystem together to develop a shared understanding of network APIs, mobile identity and the commercial opportunities they present. Its role is to help the industry navigate the technical, operational, regulatory and commercial challenges that no single organisation can resolve independently.

Crucially, the workgroup provides a forum to move beyond discussing individual capabilities towards understanding interoperability, enterprise requirements, viable business models and the practical barriers to adoption. By sharing experience, developing common terminology, identifying best practices and aligning with initiatives such as GSMA Open Gateway and CAMARA, it can help international carriers establish their place in this developing market.

This is particularly important for international carriers. Their experience of connecting networks and managing complex international services gives them a valuable perspective, but their role in the network API ecosystem is still being defined. The workgroup offers an opportunity to help shape that role collectively, ensuring that international carriers are active participants in developing the market rather than simply inheriting a commercial model designed by others.

The i3Forum community has already demonstrated why this kind of collective action matters. The transition from TDM to IP, the fight against communications fraud, numbering-plan challenges and the work to restore trust in international communications all demonstrate a common characteristic: none can be solved sustainably by one organisation acting alone.

This does not mean eliminating competition. Collaboration creates the common foundations that make better competition possible. We can agree on the roads while continuing to build different vehicles. We can make access consistent while differentiating through intelligence, reach, experience, service and, of course, innovation. That’s exciting, isn’t it?

The alternative is fragmentation: many technically impressive APIs, multiple versions of the same capability, inconsistent coverage, prohibitive commercial models and an enterprise left to assemble the pieces. Or, more likely, struggling on, never having known they could have had the answer to their problem all along.

Perhaps the most important question is not, “Which APIs can we make available?” It is, “Which human or business problems can we solve, together?” That small change in language leads to a big change in behaviour. It moves us from catalogues to use cases. Most importantly, it puts the customer, not the technology, at the centre of the conversation.

Why should I do this?

Because collaboration turns isolated capabilities into scalable value.

Why should I buy into it?

Because enterprises will reward solutions that remove complexity and produce measurable outcomes for them, at a price that makes commercial sense.

What has it got to do with me?

Whether you are a carrier, international carrier, aggregator, platform provider, vendor or enterprise service provider, you hold part of an answer that no one else can complete alone. You have something the others don’t.

Network APIs can help make the digital world safer, simpler and more human. We know that. But we won’t measure their success by how many APIs we’ve deployed. We’ll measure it by how many real problems we’ve solved. And we will solve many more of them, together.