A year or so ago application programme interfaces (APIs) were generating a lot of excitement as telcos and their suppliers quickly grasped the potential for network APIs to be the enablers of a new wave of monetisation for the industry. Although there are now numerous initiatives bringing together industry organisations, vendor and telco groups, the first blush of excitement has worn off. That's a typical technology industry path. We're not quite in Gartner's Trough of Disillusion but the era of APIs for everything accompanied by frictionless monetisation isn't here yet.
KENT, United Kingdom, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A year or so ago application programme interfaces (APIs) were generating a lot of excitement as telcos and their suppliers quickly grasped the potential for network APIs to be the enablers of a new wave of monetisation for the industry. Although there are now numerous initiatives bringing together industry organisations, vendor and telco groups, the first blush of excitement has worn off. That's a typical technology industry path. We're not quite in Gartner's Trough of Disillusion but the era of APIs for everything accompanied by frictionless monetisation isn't here yet.
That doesn't mean the API monetisation opportunity has disappeared or that telcos have missed out on yet another source of potential new revenue. What it does mean is that reality has overtaken the hype. Today, we're looking at a very small market in which a few, highly-specific use cases, mostly around identity verification and fraud prevention, show how API monetisation can succeed and offer telcos a sense of how far wider monetisation of APIs will happen in future.
The vision of numerous APIs being monetised in support of network functions, quality on demand and the network-dependent innovations around AI, is still coming to fruition. In the meantime, the means to open underlying network API infrastructure are being popularised.
The API prize isn't here yet but there are clear signposts showing the way to the money.
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George Malim
Managing Editor
https://ontrend.theagiletelco.com/network-apis-february-2026/
Media Contact
Ilse Distin, WeKnow Media Ltd., 44 7950 279368, [email protected], https://techledworld.com/
SOURCE Agile Telco
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