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AT&T will expose certain API-enabled network capabilities via Vonage’s platform to its developer community
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The operator also launched the AT&T Accelerator Program
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Vonage will serve as a “primary partner” to AT&T to make APIs available to their developer community, but AT&T also will look at other opportunities
Ericsson’s Vonage API platform added another feather to its cap. Just two weeks after Verizon announced its plans to collaborate with Vonage on network APIs, AT&T revealed a similar initiative.
AT&T said it will expose certain API-enabled network capabilities via Vonage’s platform to its developer community, making it easier for developers to embed network capabilities into applications. These APIs include those that are standardized under the Linux Foundation’s CAMARA open-source project.
AT&T also revealed that it has launched the AT&T Accelerator Program, which is intended to make APIs available to developers but will allow AT&T to work closely with the developer and receive feedback on the APIs and how they can be used to create different types of applications.
“The really exciting thing is APIs are building blocks to products,” said Stephanie Ormston, assistant vice president, digital services integration at AT&T. “They can be used to build AT&T-branded products or other types of consumer applications. There are multiple different go-to-market models.”
Ormston added that although the AT&T Accelerator Program is not intended to be a commercial program that generates revenue, it will be used as a way to get developer feedback and create new business cases or products.
“There is the assumption that the APIs that we bring through this program and where we get developer feedback will also be taken to market in a commercial fashion,” Ormston said.
Ormston added that by enabling developers to have access to APIs, AT&T expects that there will be new business models to emerge – some will be business-to-business, others will be business-to-business-to-consumer. AT&T also thinks that by opening its APIs to developers, it will not only generate more applications for its wireless network but its fiber network as well. “At AT&T we operate a converged network and customers want their experiences to work regardless of network,” she said.
Looking for other API opportunities
Vonage will serve as a “primary partner” to AT&T to make APIs available to their developer community, but AT&T also will look at other opportunities. Besides Ericsson’s Vonage, Nokia is also working on open APIs with its Network as a Code platform that it launched last September.
Ormston said that while some developers want to build applications that work across multiple operator networks, others are only interested in building applications for enterprises that will make use of AT&T’s network. Of course, AT&T is particularly interested in applications that are only available on its network and can be used to differentiate the operator from its competitors. “There are going to be different models for APIs,” Ormston said.
One of the first APIs to be available through the Vonage platform is the Number Verification API, which provides real-time device authentication. AT&T also offers anomaly threat detection APIs that can identify malware activity, excessive data usage and device identity spoofing,
Ormston said some of these early APIs that are part of the Vonage platform were already being used internally by AT&T and easily made available to developers.
Update: This article was updated to reflect that AT&T also offers anomaly threat detection APIs.
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