Telefónica and GSMA Chairman, José María Álvarez-Pallete, speaking at the opening session of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) today, emphasised that GSMA Open Gateway, the global industry initiative announced this morning by the GSMA, “bonds Telcos, the Industry, Big Techs and Developers to create the digital future together”.
Álvarez-Pallete stressed that the new digital era the world is witnessing “is going to require a radical evolution and a platform that offers simplicity above the complexity of our businesses”. “GSMA Open Gateway is that platform”, he said.
This industry initiative, announced this Monday by the GSMA at the start of the first of four days of MWC in Barcelona, will enable the sharing and federation of open, standardised APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to provide interoperable access to operators’ networks for developers and hyperscalers. “This will create a new world of opportunity for the industry. It will be a catalyst for all those advanced services to fulfil their potential and reach critical mass. And it will generate choice and deliver value for consumers”, said Telefónica’s chairman. He added: “This is the ambition behind GSMA Open Gateway. To establish a common layer to expose network capabilities. To transform the whole ecosystem to benefit all”.
20 signatories of the MoU, reaching 3.8 billion people and 8 standardized APIs
The chairman of Telefónica and the GSMA said that GSMA Open Gateway is starting its journey under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by 20 companies, with the capacity to reach 3.8 billion people and eight standardised APIs under CAMARA, an industry initiative presented at MWC 2022 precisely for the development of the APIs needed to launch GSMA Open Gateway now. “This is just the beginning but gaining traction fast”, added Álvarez-Pallete.
He explained: “Telcos have come a long way in developing a global platform to connect everyone and everything. And now, by federating open network APIs and applying the roaming concept of interoperability, mobile operators and cloud services will be truly integrated to enable a new world of opportunity. Collaboration among telecom operators and with hyperscalers is crucial in this new digital ecosystem”.
“Tsunami of innovation”
During his speech, Telefónica and the GSMA Chairman placed the launch of this project within the “tsunami of innovation” that is giving rise to a new era arising from the accumulation of disruptive technologies that are acting as catalysts for this new paradigm.
Álvarez-Pallete stressed that the telco sector “is not new to disruption” and claimed the innovative character present in the very essence of the industry, since the first voice call 150 years ago and more recently since the birth of the mobile phone industry 30 years ago.
Since then, he continued, “the mobile industry has been at the forefront of innovation, leading the world towards a more connected future” to eventually become also “Internet service providers”. Now the industry is facing a turning point: “We are at the doors of a new change of era driven by the intersection of Telco, Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Web3”.
This accumulation of technologies and the evolution of the sector will offer innovative services and solutions with real uses and applications such as industrial automation, autonomous cars, remote surgery, interactive games, emergency management, holographic communications and virtual worlds. Telefónica’s Chairman emphasised that these services will represent “the ultimate network challenge”, and will serve to highlight a reality: “Without telcos there is no digital future”.
Álvarez-Pallete closed his speech by highlighting the “extraordinary merit of each and every one of the no less extraordinary professionals who make up Telefónica and who have made it possible for the operator to be about to celebrate its first 100 years of successful life”.
