Although telcos invested nearly $1 trillion in network upgrades since 2018, they are still struggling to monetize 5G. This ongoing challenge has troubling echoes of other recent missed opportunities. The sector is now at risk of losing out on the chance to extract significant value from 5G’s unique capabilities, much as it has missed the opportunity from streaming video and enterprise messaging over the past 20 years, which left other players profiting from the sophisticated, costly digital infrastructure that telecom operators put in place.
However, there is growing interest—and hope—in the potential of network application programming interfaces (APIs) to turn the tide. Network APIs are the interlocking puzzle pieces that connect applications to one another and to telecom networks. As such, they are critical to companies seamlessly tapping into 5G’s powerful capabilities…
