CSPs need to speak developers’ language for network APIs

If communications service providers (CSPs) make New Year’s resolutions, they might want to consider learning a new language in 2025. Research from STL Partners has drawn attention to the lack of understanding that software developers have about network application programming interfaces (APIs) and part of the problem is terminology.

As CSPs develop network API business models with expectations for new revenues, one of the takeaways from STL’s research is that they will need to make more of an effort to present the capabilities of network APIs in terms that developers recognize.

STL surveyed 400 software application developers and asked them about how they use and engage with APIs and which commercial channels they prefer. It also asked developers what they understand by the term network API.

One of the key findings is that 55% of developers do not associate network APIs with telecom network capabilities. Basically, the term does not mean the same thing to developers as it does to telcos.

“In the telecoms world, we're using the term network API and we don't realize that most developers are in an IT world. When they use the word network, they're not thinking about a telecoms network, they're thinking about the wider IT and cloud estate,” said Amy Cameron, research director at STL Partners.

The developers surveyed described a network API as something they use to exchange data between applications that run on different networks or to control network functionality in their IT domains, not in telecoms networks.

A bridgeable gap 

However, the results also showed that developers are interested in the capabilities of network APIs.

According to the survey, 54% said accessing network performance information, such as latency and jitter, was attractive. In addition, half of respondents saw value in understanding device status, while 44% saw value in setting and guaranteeing network performance levels for a specific time.

“These are capabilities that make sense to [developers] and the concept is something they understand. But telecom is a new network domain [for them], and they have not had access to it or control over it before,” said Cameron.

This means telcos need to not only educate developers but also offer network API propositions in terms that their developer customers will understand.

“It’s not an unbridgeable gap. [CSPs] just need to put this in a language that is going to make sense to developers and meet them where they are… developers understand the concept of using APIs to get information about their network or to exchange data or to manage their network environment. As telecom APIs mature, they will be able to do all of this on their connectivity network as well as their IT network,” she said.

The findings will not come as a surprise to CSPs, many of which have acknowledged the difficulty of attracting developers to their network APIs as a challenge for Network-as-a-Service business models.

But in a sign of progress in the sector’s developer outreach, STL’s survey also found increasing awareness of telco API initiatives, including GSMA Open Gateway and CAMARA.

Cloud providers are key channel

Meeting developers where they are also applies to where developers access third-party APIs, which is mostly from large cloud provider platforms, such as Alibaba, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Tencent and Oracle. Microsoft ranked tops in terms of customer experience for developers, according to the survey.

After hyperscale platforms, the next largest API channel is systems integrators, followed by third-party developer platforms, API aggregators (such as RingCentral, Twilio and Vonage) and CSPs. Interestingly, the results showed that developers were just as likely to access APIs from Communication-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS)providers as telcos’ own channels.

Cameron said it was “non-negotiable” that telcos need to partner with hyperscalers as a channel for network APIs, but they will also need multiple approaches to the market.

Orange Chief Technology Officer Laurent Leboucher has previously expressed the importance of bringing network APIs into the hyperscalers’ marketplaces to reach more developers. Peter Arbitter, senior vice president of MagentaBusiness API (MACE) at  Deutsche Telekom, has also said that hyperscalers are essential for accessing developer ecosystems.

Find out how TM Forum is helping to create a framework of universal APIs that provide seamless access to operator networks through its role in The GSMA Open Gateway initiative.