API Evangelist Conversation with Henry Calvert, Global Head of Future Networks @ GSMA

Hi Kin, hi everyone, my name is Henry Calvert. I’m head of networks at the GSMA. I’m also the industry lead for a little initiative we’re doing across the mobile industry, which is called Open Gateway.

Well, let’s face facts, Kin, at the, you know, at the start here. This is not the first time the mobile industry has tried to expose its network capabilities for APIs. We’ve had some moderate successes like Mobile Connect, and we’ve had some spectacular phases, sorry, spectacular failures, uh, like OneAPI. So it’s not the first time. This is not our first rodeo in these activities. And what we’ve, uh, sort of evangelized over the last 18 months, two years now, since 2022. Is to actually, uh, refocus on how we should expose network capabilities and the data context that mobile network operators have, uh, to two developers in a very simple form, just like the cloud hyperscalers do, they provide store and compute that is programmable. We want to actually make our mobile networks in the industry programmable as well. So it’s really easy for developers to start using some of the cool stuff that is coming out of 5G network generations.

Yeah, we decided in the GSMA, and this is an industry wide activity, and I’ll mention that in a minute, but we decided in the GSMA, let’s stop doing specifications by documentation. Let’s start doing it by code, and the best place for code that we feel is GitHubs, and there’s the major GitHub through the Camara Linux initiative, um, which is the best place for it because people are very familiar with Linux in the IT, in the developer world. So let’s use that as the form of communications There’s also, you know, it gets a little bit Sort of more complicated as we build out the industry with channel partners. There’s uh, Operate based API’s that are exposed through the TM forum that they have their O. D. A. Architecture on that is actually providing some of the fulfillment activities you need to on board developers on board applications and look at the performance. Of what’s actually been provided from the mobile networks and the applications and themselves, that’s still in a very, uh, young state of what’s actually happening. And also in the GSMA, we have a GitHub repository ourselves, where we’re looking at the interoperability, um, where aggregators have aggregated operator. Uh, exposure of APIs, uh, how the routing, um, uh, and how each of those networks can be interoperable, uh, between each other. So we’ve kind of got a good grip now of the framework that we need to actually get in place, uh, over the, that we’ve been doing, doing over the last 18 months.

Well, there’s two fundamental things that also the GSMA brings, um, and that is, first of all, the commercial principles by which, you know, uh, the APIs can be commercialized or the access can be, uh, commercialized over a long time. So monetizing the assets that, uh, we have from the operators, uh, and we’re displaying, starting to display that as we get into commercial launches, uh, of the APIs, um, we’re starting to achieve. Uh, bring them to life through use cases and case studies of how they’re impacting Um, not only the customer experience, but the quality people are getting so You know, we can mention a few of those use cases anti fraud is the big one at the at this point in time How are we reducing fraud out there? How are we reducing phishing? How are we reducing? Um, I think it’s called authorized push payments. Um, which is sort of when people, um, are tricked into moving cash around. How are we looking at the network characteristics to really stop those frauds actually happening? But we want to jump out of that and also talk about how do we actually provide better reliable networks through APIs like Quality on Demand. Or how do we actually get closer to the customer using the edge site discovery api? You know, how do you understand where the next store and compute resources are closer to the end customer at the end of the day? So that’s really sort of evangelizing How the value can be created in the industry and drive that forward from a supply side Um the other sort of aspects we need to be very conscious of Is regulation, um, privacy and consent is a really important topic. And, and if we can get privacy and consent right, then I think we can open up from legitimate use. of APIs to actually, you know, a conversation with the, uh, endpoints, uh, which would be the mobile users or the, or the endpoints on the, uh, at the end of Wi Fi routers, um, you know, for the use of their information, um, obviously giving that consent and managing that consent is very important in doing that. So on the supply side there, Kin, we’re starting to actually explain that to executives. Um, and they’re sort of saying, right, okay, there’s going to be a trusted environment by which I can actually do business and there’s going to be value that we’re actually creating from that. But we’re not stopping there either. Kin, sorry for taking so long on this bit. Um, we’re actually starting to look at the demand side. So I’ve created a small team that is actually starting to ask enterprises and developers. What do you need from a network? What are your pain points? What are your challenges? And really get them to have a voice at the table. Now we’re starting off with fairly large multinational corporations because that’s the GSMA. We’re trying to actually get ubiquity not only in local markets, but regionally and globally. Think of car manufacturers. Think of Toyota. Toyota operates in every market. Airbus lands planes in every market. They want the same way to connect to networks, uh, as they would in their own local market. And that’s what this APIs and the standardization of these APIs is bringing. But we might only at this point in time. It’s really what the operators have been sort of discovering over the last 10 years like sim swap device location Or number verification or quality on demand or as I mentioned before edge site discovery It’s sort of sort of telco supply side APIs. We’ve got to find out from the enterprises is what they need in their connections. What information do they need? Like population density and bringing and branching out to other APIs that these enterprises need to actually use and they actually demand and want.

But for sure, for sure. And everything that actually means in the different regulations in the market, and that’s where the GSMA sort of can actually assist the industry in this because, because we, we have looked at that regulation and the differences in each of the marketplaces. And, you know, we, we have a single sort of single principle is the law and in the market that is where the customer is, is the law that needs to be applied by. Also, the law where that customer actually resides on, uh, their nationality, i. e. where they bought their service from, etc. This is very important when customers are roaming, uh, and they’re in different networks. And it does get quite complicated, but, um, we’ve been able to manage voice calls and SMSs and be able to produce data services. A lot of them have been home routed. Um, but now we’re trying to actually have local breakout. What that means is if you’re traveling Kin from the US of A to United Kingdom Is your services in your internet doesn’t travel all the way back to the usa and you get long delays It actually breaks out in the uk and we can start using these apis and capabilities to know where people are So we can inform the enterprises so they understand what regulatory regime they need to work under And and how to apply that

for sure for sure And I think we’ve started to look in the practices of device location, uh just recently Um, there seems to be You know, let’s go for the for the one that sort of is discussed quite a lot on that is device location at the moment. Location and privacy. Uh, this sort of consent model that we’re actually bringing in gives us many different options, whether it’s a real time consent request from the consumer. And the sort of the guidelines by which is what is a consistent UX by which you can take that subscriber and that customer through so you actually understand sort of the steps you actually know. So we’re starting to build those principles in to that consent model and therefore device location and the concerns that local regulators have about using someone’s location can be met. Uh in some form and most importantly can be recorded as well when it’s actually been done and interrogated from it

They are. And, and what’s been. You know, sort of groundbreaking for us is there seems to be a desire to collaborate across the industry sectors. So Linux is doing the Camara API’s team forums, doing the operate API’s on the GSMA is doing the interoperability and sort of the business evangelization of it. We’re kind of very much working in harmony on certainly in my life of 10 years of GSMA. You know, we’ve been in. You know, a couple of decades of competition around, you know, who’s doing what. But, you know, and it really does feel like the industry is at this crossroads where they’re saying, we actually need to fix these problems because we’re just annoying developers that they can’t get access. And we can see the frustration. Um, and they, you know, at this point in time, we’re actually starting to drive that through and make those changes.

I think we’ve, um, for, you know, for me personally, um, I think mobile has changed consumer life, okay? You know, for the last two decades. Our lives are so different. I don’t want to say, I think mobile, on balance, has provided huge social benefit in what’s actually happening. It’s enabled people to do more. We have to actually ensure that, uh, that, um, we’re, Making sure that that is done in a in a correct fashion. All right, making sure that You know that there’s not too much of an issue. I mean, you know making sure that mobile phones aren’t utilized too often, um, especially, you know, with the younger generations and we’ve got to learn to actually, you know, make sure that people use these devices appropriately and properly. That said, and I’ve been through, I’m that old now, Kin. I’ve been through, you know, all the generations 2G, 3G, 4G, and we’re at 5G. And 5G is the enterprise. It’s meant to be delivering enterprise benefit, enterprise productivity, that’s going to actually make sure logistics go quicker, make sure that our lives aren’t complicated. How long do we spend on the phone talking to banks about You know, unraveling sort of the systems of the fraud protection they put in place and they need to put them in place. But we can make that a better place with the banks and with the enterprises. It’d be better, you know, even these IOT that goes out there about the parking sensors and knowing when, where I can park and when current part and when the different levels are full, all getting all this information up onto the consumer facing is good. And we just haven’t quite fired there yet in 5G Enterprise. Um, it’s coming, but it’s just not there. And this is, to me, the last piece of the puzzle of a two sided business model. B2B2C, or B2C in the activities that need to be done. Um, and there are There’s great technologies out there in 5G. There’s 5G advance, which are better uplinks, which means, in practice, that you can stream video from your mobile phones. Uh to content service a lot better and that’s really great in in sort of security video security and also robotics in In where they’re actually measuring where container bases are and things like that. So so the 5g advances there There’s a fundamental shift we’ve done in 5g, which is a service based architecture. So It’s it’s not Appliance boxes anymore that operators buy it’s it’s software functions that they’re deploying in a devops fashion We’re in this transition And if we can get that, then enterprises themselves can start to deploy their own private networks. And we can start to better integrate through NTN with satellite industries. So even when I look at the generational change, I need a gateway by which the enterprise can actually talk to the telecommunications. Networks. We need the language. We need the Babel fish off the life. And I see APIs. APIs are the only way that these these are going to happen. So, you know, I want to finish my career in the fact of ensuring That enterprises are really using mobile networks to their fullest capabilities so consumers can have a better life at the end of the day.