The joint initiative, revealed at TM Forum’s DTW24 Ignite event, signals a long-awaited industry convergence: the GSMA will continue to define and promote universal network APIs to the global developer community, while TM Forum will focus on the underlying business and operational frameworks that telcos need to commercialise, manage, and monetise these APIs at scale. This coordinated approach could remove historic barriers of fragmentation and duplication that have slowed the telecom industry’s ability to compete with hyperscalers and cloud platforms in offering standardised, global services.

But will this announcement deliver real change—or is the industry once again running the risk of over-promising on the API opportunity? Surely, any move that will lower complexity and the costs of the Open APIs services should be welcomed. Some of the enterprise members of MEF have voiced concerns that APIs might be priced out of the authentication or security market where multiple non telecom solutions are growing fast and cheaply.

At MEF, we welcome this GSMA-TM Forum partnership as a necessary and important step towards creating a genuine telecom API economy. Without such alignment, fragmentation would have continued to slow progress.”

Open Gateway APIs: Promise and Purpose

At its heart, the Open Gateway initiative aims to simplify how developers access and use core mobile network capabilities—such as identity verification, quality of service control, or carrier billing—through universal APIs that behave the same way across different operators and markets.

For developers and digital service providers, this could dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of integrating telecom functions into new apps, services, and platforms. For telcos, the Open Gateway model promises to unlock value from existing network assets in the form of recurring API revenues.

What makes the GSMA-TM Forum announcement significant is the attempt to align both the technical definition of APIs (GSMA’s role) and the business and operational processes for monetisation (TM Forum’s role). This division of responsibilities may create the consistency and scale needed to make these APIs attractive.

Simplifying Certification – Lowering Costs

One of the most attractive elements of Open Gateway APIs is the promise of lowering costs—not just for developers, but also for operators themselves. Under this new scheme, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will be able to certify their compliance in a single process with both TM Forum’s Operate APIs and CAMARA’s Service APIs (the open-source Framework of the Linux Foundation used by the GSMA). Let’s say that the fragmentation of the roles in the industry remains, but this certification guarantees that APIs will be interoperable within the Open Gateway ecosystem, reducing technical friction and uncertainty.

Prior to this joint effort, there was no single way to verify that TM Forum Operate APIs and CAMARA Service APIs were fully aligned with Open Gateway standards. This lack of unified certification created unnecessary complexity and inconsistency across different CSP implementations—a problem this collaboration now aims to solve.

The collaboration is designed to benefit the entire industry by simplifying and accelerating API integration for CSPs across multiple platforms and marketplaces, while also making service delivery easier for vendors.

Go To Market and Monetisation remain the next key challenges

However, as the MEF Insight Group on Mobile Evolution has noted in recent discussions, there are still important questions about the real commercial models behind these APIs. Pricing remains unresolved. Developers and cloud players are accustomed to low-cost or free API access—will telcos be able to match this market expectation while generating meaningful revenue?

And who pays? Will businesses or end-users be willing to pay for premium network features like guaranteed QoS or verified identity? The right supply/demand equilibrium point has yet to emerge.

Market Forecasts: Big Numbers Tomorrow, But Some Gaps Today

Analyst forecasts are bullish for the future of Telco APIs: Juniper Research projects the global Open Gateway API market to reach $20–30 billion annually within the next 5–7 years. Yet there is caution within the industry for the short term. These forecasts assume a rapid telco adoption—with networks offering APIs globally in a standardised, scalable way.

The numbers are impressive with 73 mobile operator groups representing 284 mobile networks, but the greatest value for APIs would be a universal coverage. The number of mobile network operators (MNOs) and Large MVNOs (Mobile Virtual network Operators) in the world would be more than 800, there is still work to be done.  Developer appreciation of APIs is an important factor which depends on cost, ease of use, and availability.

Important steps have taken here, and the work from TM Forum is very important. I think it is fair to say while there is more awareness and even some interest, we do not have enthusiasm yet – great case studies and return on investment figures might change that.

And as mentioned before, we are still waiting for the market to select clear monetisation models—which remain largely under development. The market has not yet fully tested the price elasticity of demand for these network APIs. Until these models are validated in practice—not just theory—forecasts should be treated with healthy scepticism.

MEF’s View: A very Positive Step, many more will have to come

At MEF, we welcome this GSMA-TM Forum partnership as a necessary and important step towards creating a genuine telecom API economy. Without such alignment, fragmentation would have continued to slow progress.

However, this announcement is the beginning, not the end, of the process. Operators will need to:

• Commit to real API availability across markets.
• Offer commercially viable pricing for the developer ecosystem.
• Solve commercial, regulatory, and operational issues that still linger.

The success of Open Gateway APIs will not be driven by announcements or specifications alone—it will depend on execution and market dynamics.

MEF CEO