STOCKHOLM, Sept 12 (Askume) – Ericsson (ERICb.ST) said on Thursday it has set up a new company to sell network software tools and formed a joint venture with more than a dozen telecoms operators including Verizon (VZ.N), cell.Software .
The software is a web application programming interface (API) that helps prevent credit card fraud, provides glitch-free entertainment, gives gamers an instant speed boost, and allows businesses to create hundreds of different features.
Ericsson will hold a 50% stake in the joint venture, while the telecom operator will have a 50% stake.
The new company will allow enterprises to deploy network APIs that can use different telecom networks in different countries, similar to how international mobile roaming works.
America Movil (AMXB.MX) , AT&T (TN) , Airtel (BRTI.NS) , Orange (ORAN.PA) , Singtel (STELO.UL) , Telefonica (TEF.MC) , Telstra (TLS.AX) , T-China Mobile (TMUS.O) and Vodafone (VOD.L) have also joined the venture. Vonage and Google (GOOGL.O) Cloud will provide access to an ecosystem of millions of developers.
Vonage CEO Niklas Heuveldop said in an interview: “Service providers need to agree on a common way to expose these APIs… This is a structural change in the market.”
“We have never seen anything like this since the GSMA was founded 30 years ago.” The GSMA is a global alliance of telecommunications companies.
Ericsson bet on network APIs and agreed to acquire Vonage for $6.2 billion in 2021, but has since taken a $4 billion impairment charge.
While some telecom companies already use network APIs, integrating them across hundreds of individual telecom companies is impractical.
“We established this joint venture to accelerate market development and overcome challenges,” said Peter Arbeiter, senior vice president at Deutsche Telekom. He said telecom companies would not suffer if they joined later.
McKinsey estimates that the network API market will generate US$300 billion in revenue for telecom operators over the next seven years.
Banking and financial sectors will quickly adopt Web APIs because of their fraud detection capabilities, officials said.
5G speeds can be increased when banks need to locate customers’ phones in stores while making transactions to prevent fraud.
“We have a three-year, fully funded business plan, with all investors providing seed capital and Series B funding if needed,” said Heuveldop.
