OneAPI Exchange: Can It Move Mobile Operators Up the App Value Chain?

“APIs allow developers to quickly embed entire systems or application functionality, like speech recognition or mapping, inside of their apps,” says Andrzejek. “APIs are truly accelerators of new digital experiences.”

Marcus Dormanns, who heads up OneAPI as the GSMA’s senior director of product management, believes that different APIs can fulfill different requirements from developers and partners, including:

• enhancing the functionality of an app (with communication capabilities, for example);
• improving the user experience as it pertains to an app (e.g., with an identity capability that prevents the need to register and log on with a new user ID and/or password);
• enabling the addition of a monetization model to an app through a payment capability (such as charging to a mobile bill).

Previously, network operators were solely focused on communications, but the new world of API enhancement puts the network in the mix to gain revenue through any type of service that can be delivered via application to the end user.

Customers also benefit from cross-carrier APIs, which are implemented so that apps can be purchased in a controlled, quality-assured network-provider environment rather than in an app store where the user experience can prove to be fairly janky. Plus, this way customers are simply adding charges to their existing billing relationship with their carrier, something a recent Amdocs survey says customers are far more comfortable with than establishing a new relationship with a different carrier.

Developers gain the allure of instant cred when they use a cross-carrier API like the OneAPI Exchange. They also gain access to battle-tested OSS/BSS systems across any network, not to mention the ripe customer base of any carrier for any of their apps.

Although the OneAPI Exchange is still in its infancy in the US, the GSMA has already made the OneAPI Gateway available in Canada. It currently serves three of that country’s carriers: Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus.

The Gateway is “a very good proof point that operators can cooperate to serve partners directly with cross-operator network APIs,” says Marcus Dormanns. “The transaction volume has been steadily increasing since the service went live last year. All partners are looking forward to increasing the reach by integrating this solution with the overall OneAPI Exchange and, by doing so, making the proposition even more attractive.”

The OneAPI Exchange certainly broadens the reach of both the developer and the operator, but this new paradigm of cooperation is likely to alter the traditionally hard-nosed competitive spirit of the telecom world and could potentially turn operators away from the GSMA’s solution. But those that want to hit the ground running with the latest innovative services are likely to make the most of OneAPI.

“It is a new way of working and going to market, so understanding how to cooperate and compete becomes crucial,” says Apigee’s David Andrzejek.

It turns out that “moving up the app value chain” is a whole lot more than just the industry catchphrase of the moment. Operators want to prove they’re not a dumb pipe or just a pretty face, and the OneAPI Exchange, which now has critical mass thanks to AT&T and other big-name participants, is a quick way to get into the game in earnest.

OneAPI is a tested solution that lets operators transition from their established role as wireless carriers to full-service lifestyle enablers in the blink of an eye. Its long-term future will depend on how many additional operators are drawn to the GSMA’s program and its promise of an instantaneous ascent up the value chain.