At MWC Barcelona, LotusFlare’s Terry Guo, Eric Morhenn, and Liberty’s Phillip Bronsdon discussed how telecom operators can unlock new revenue streams by monetizing 5G APIs and eSIM. As mobile networks evolve, operators are sitting on valuable digital assets—from fraud detection and device status APIs to eSIM connectivity—but many struggle to commercialize them. LotusFlare’s platform simplifies the process, helping CSPs quickly deploy and scale monetization strategies.
The conversation also highlighted the shift in eSIM adoption, particularly for travel and IoT use cases. With seamless digital activation and global compatibility, eSIM is opening new doors for operators, but legacy systems often create bottlenecks. Through its co-innovation approach, LotusFlare is enabling partners like Liberty to streamline operations, onboard resellers faster, and scale eSIM offerings effortlessly. Want to learn how operators are transforming network assets into new revenue? Watch the full interview now.
Alejandro Piñero:
All right. Welcome back, everyone, to FMTV's coverage here at MWC Barcelona. We've made it through day one, and we're very excited to be back with LotusFlare, to hear more about 5G APIs, eSIM, and more.
Thank you, gentlemen, for joining me today and to talk to us about these buzzwords. Really, they're all over, and I'm sure you guys are excited to see that as well.
Terry, let's start with you. Let's pick up on some of those themes that we discussed on our previous interview around what role do network assets like 5G APIs and eSIM play in monetizing networks and creating new revenue streams?
Terry Guo:
I believe the telecom operators are sitting on a goldmine of APIs, especially with all the investment they've made in 5G. These are APIs like device status, fraud, bring your own number. If I put my consumer or developer hats on, these are incredibly valuable APIs I would pay for.
The challenge for the operators today is, how do we actually enable these APIs? How do we expose them? How do we monetize these? That's something I think that there's a lot of work going on by the different standard bodies, and I think it's coming together. I believe the inflection point is coming.
On eSIM, in the past couple of years, I think the consumers have discovered eSIM travel. What is happening now is people who used to not use data when they travel are now using data. That's a new revenue stream for the operators. The challenge, again, is a lot of the operators, their eSIM wholesale platforms are not sufficient to serve these new kinds of breed of eSIM traveler apps, and that's something LotusFlare is addressing. In fact, we're working with Phil on a project.
Alejandro Piñero:
Brilliant. Let's pick up on that point around eSIM. Eric, I'd love to hear, from your perspective, how eSIMs help to transform connectivity and what role they're playing.
Eric Morhenn:
Yeah, eSIMs have really transformed consumer connectivity because it makes it much more friction free, easy, convenient, fully digital for a customer to select a mobile operator to connect to install an eSIM. The iPhone now supports storing up to eight different eSIM profiles. You can have any two active at one time. And with just a few clicks of a button on the app and the settings, you can get connected immediately.
From a customer standpoint, it's providing tremendous benefits. The devices can remove the need for the physical SIM slot, which reduces the load on the device, etc. And then for operators, it's a great opportunity for them to quickly acquire customers through fully digital means using eSIM.
Alejandro Piñero:
And Phil, you care to share your side, from Liberty's perspective, on that?
Phillip Bronsdon:
Sure. Yeah, thank you. As the team said here, the devices are ready, the network is ready. It really is about getting the back office ready. And the marketplace is larger than it was, right? We were very happy selling SIMs at the airport and in grocery stores and convenience stores, and now, it's a global story, right? With the expansion of e-commerce, people are very comfortable to buy this technology from reputable firms before they even begin their travel.
Alejandro Piñero:
Great. Let's discuss that model that Phil's hinting at and how that's evolving.
Terry, if we could go to you now, tell us a little bit about how those eSIM market models look and how they're evolving.
Terry Guo:
If you look at eSIM, the value chain, I believe, it's three layers. You've got the MNOs, who are providing the connectivity and the eSIM actual profiles and SIM cards. And then you've got a layer above that, which are the resellers, who are essentially buying in bulk from the MNOs, and then they're selling it. And then the layer above that are the apps and people who are essentially selling these to consumers or enterprise. The bottom layer, a lot of the work has been done, and the middle layer, there's a bunch of players, and then at the top, it's very crowded, but I think there's still a lot of opportunities in each of those layers to monetize.
Alejandro Piñero:
And Eric, do you agree with that, or do you have a different story to tell?
Eric Morhenn:
I definitely agree with that. Our theme for MWC this year is network assets monetized, and many operators are sitting on a rich set of assets that they haven't fully monetized and haven't figured out how to recover some of their investments on 4G and broadband. ESIM provides one of those opportunities using a platform like Lotus Flare's eSIM Express, wholesale and roaming teams can actually tap into their resources and very quickly and easily onboard new eSIM travel apps, IoT providers, and sell connectivity and eSIMs through a self-service portal. It allows a very friction-free, fast, easy experience, and a way for them to monetize their network more efficiently.
Alejandro Piñero:
Great. And Phil, I'd love to hear a little bit about what challenges wholesale CSPs face when it comes to monetizing eSIM, especially given your position in the market and your experience.
Phillip Bronsdon:
Sure. Yeah, thank you. To build on the thoughts here, I think what we're finding is the existing systems were customized for a set of requirements, and those wholesale systems are hard to change. They take a lot of time and competing priorities.
What we've found is, by partnering with LotusFlare, we actually can take a service model approach using the co-innovation approach that Terry and team championed with us. They bring a great understanding to the needs of the marketplace. It's rapidly shifting. Even our ability to keep up with the understanding is limited at times. Not only is the technology more flexible with LotusFlare, but as a service, we're getting a roadmap and features brought to us because they see the marketplace more broadly than even we do.
Alejandro Piñero:
Perhaps, Eric, a good next point here is to hear your side of that partnership and how, perhaps more broadly, LotusFlare works with partners to help deliver eSIM, and more broadly, network monetization.
Eric Morhenn:
Sure. I think partnering with Phil and the team at Liberty has been a great experience. Using that co-innovation approach, we've built a solution together, which really helps Liberty monetize their network assets in the form of their data networks across their whole footprint, and then expose those assets, sell those assets in the form of data connectivity to this growing universe of eSIM travel apps and IoT players that would like to buy from operators, but have really been prevented because of the legacy systems who were not efficient and took months and months to onboard, very difficult to configure and price new plans for the operators. Using a self-service approach, we've made it much more friction-free. No IT involvement is needed to onboard a new eSIM reseller, and now, they can address a global audience, essentially, and monetize their network in a new way.
Alejandro Piñero:
Excellent. Well, gentlemen, congratulations on this partnership, and thank you so much for taking the time to share with Fierce Network your learnings and the success you've found.
Terry Guo:
Thank you.
Phillip Bronsdon:
Great.
Eric Morhenn:
Sure.