Vonage, Telstra team to accelerate digital transformation with network APIs

Vonage has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Telstra, Australia’s largest telco, with aim of giving enterprises and developers the opportunity to leverage network capabilities to create innovative, advanced applications and to enhance the customer experience.

The company is looking to explore ways to accelerate digital transformation with the power of network application programming interfaces (APIs), with the move introducing the operator’s network APIs to the cloud communications platform in a non-exclusive agreement with Telstra.

Explaining the rationale behind the deal, Vonage said network APIs are now key to uncovering new capabilities for use by developers from within a 5G network that have never before been exposed and made available in an easy, consumable way.

Vonage and Telstra will collaborate on and continue investing in enhancing existing APIs, such as Silent Authentication – a new verification method designed to provide secure authentication without requiring users to input passwords or verification information.

Telstra and Vonage will also work together to identify new open APIs to bring to market such as slicing, edge computing, fraud and spam protections, and network analytical insights, while exploring the integration of Telstra’s APIs with Vonage’s API platform. 

The partnership complements Telstra’s T25 ambition to grow and extend its API leadership position, while opening up new opportunities for Vonage in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Commenting on the deal, Kim Krogh Anderson, Telstra’s group executive for product and technology said: “We see this partnership with Vonage as one of a variety of ways we can evolve and build a thriving ecosystem around our network product.

“Opening up new avenues for connectivity to be consumed will lead to new monetisation opportunities – in the same way hyperscalers monetise compute on their cloud as a platform. This is just one of the ways we’re addressing the business-to-business [B2B2X] developer market opportunity.”

Niklas Heuveldop, Vonage CEO and head of business area global communications platform for Ericsson, added: “By combining Vonage’s API platform, Ericsson’s 5G network capabilities and Telstra’s network APIs, we are providing developers and enterprises the tools they need to create new, secure, reliable and engaging solutions.

“Together with frontrunner service providers like Telstra, we are driving an open ecosystem for exponential innovation that will enable the development of new applications that transform how enterprises operate and engage with customers, while monetising the network.”