At Mobile World Congress 2024, I had the pleasure of interviewing two industry heavyweights: Ishwar Parulkar, CTO of Edge and Telco at AWS, and Savinay Berry, EVP of Engineering Products at Vonage. Our discussion centered on the crucial role of APIs in the telecom industry and the exciting developments on the horizon.
Our conversation kicked off with a focus on recent announcements and demos. Parulkar emphasized the significance of APIs that give access to telco networks, providing developers with new capabilities to create network-aware and network-enhanced applications. This opens up exciting possibilities for channel partnerships between telcos and developers.
Berry drew a parallel between the current state of network APIs and the evolution of compute and storage over the past two decades. He pointed out that while compute and storage have been deconstructed and made accessible through APIs, creating trillions of dollars in value, networks have remained a “black box” to developers. This is now changing, with network services becoming accessible through APIs, potentially unleashing a new wave of innovation.
Looking ahead, both experts highlighted promising areas for API implementation:
- Anti-fraud solutions, particularly in financial services
- Video and media applications leveraging Quality-of-Service (QoS) APIs
- Location-based services for autonomous vehicles, drones, and asset tracking
The interviewees also discussed the challenges and opportunities surrounding 5G implementation, particularly in relation to Quality-on-Demand (QoD) services. While the potential is enormous, there are still hurdles to overcome in terms of deployment, risk management, and changing industry mindsets.
As we wrapped up, we touched on the impact of generative AI on networks and cloud infrastructure. Both experts agreed that this technology will drive significant growth and transformation across the industry.
In conclusion, the next 12 months will be crucial for creating a critical mass of API supply across multiple operators and regions. Educating developers about these new capabilities will be key to driving adoption and unleashing the full potential of network APIs in the digital ecosystem.