Ahead of Mobile World Congress 2024,
MEO and the GSMA announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost
5G network services and their potential through the GSMA Open Gateway Services initiative.
Within the scope of this MoU, MEO undertakes to cooperate and contribute to the launch of an Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) framework in the national market.
The GSMA Open Gateway is a global initiative designed to accelerate the growth of 5G digital services and applications by ensuring their integration with hundreds of participating networks around the world through single, programmable access points common to all mobile operators, known as APIs. More than 42 groups of mobile operators, representing 237 mobile networks and 65% of global connections worldwide, have already joined the initiative.
This agreement, which brings together the largest operators and stakeholders in the international communications sector, aims to support the creation of a new ecosystem to accelerate innovation by exposing network standards APIs that can be leveraged by application developers and companies to build new, more secure, reliable and innovative services, such as quality of service, bank fraud protection or user authentication.
For Carlos Bouça, Director of Engineering and Networks at Altice Portugal, "MEO is once again taking the lead, this time by fostering new technological trends, with the exposure of the capabilities of its 5G mobile network, through standard APIs, which will allow programmers and companies easier access to essential resources for more secure, robust applications with a differentiated user experience."
Henry Calvert, Director of Networks at the GSMA, believes that "MEO's participation in the GSMA Open Gateway initiative with other mobile operators will help unlock new 5G services for businesses and consumers in Portugal and around the world. The creation of a common framework open to all mobile operators makes it easier for developers and cloud service providers to create mobile applications and services that are more secure and communicate with each other transparently. This will help accelerate innovations in areas such as safe drone flight, robotics, augmented reality and immersive online gaming on 5G networks."
Benefiting from the new 5G standalone mobile core, this new ecosystem of APIs will allow MEO to expose its network resources in a standardized way within the Open Gateway framework, enabling the development of innovative services and thus benefiting the offer of digital services to the end customer. This possibility of consuming network resources in a standardized and simplified way on a global scale is a great asset for the community of programmers and companies, allowing them to develop services without the need for specific developments for each operator.
Through the development of new digital services, created from its 5G network by application developers and companies, MEO will leverage all the resources of the 5G network, support the digital acceleration of companies and enable the monetization of current and future telecommunications assets, as well as the next generation of digital services.
At a time when MEO offers 5G network coverage of 95.6% of the population, this cooperation agreement is a new step in MEO's technological roadmap and strategy to offer cutting-edge technology and resources that enable Portuguese companies to develop new business models and provide new services.