In our latest CPaaSAA Talk, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Anthony Bartolo, CEO of Aduna, and Ferry Grijpink, partner at McKinsey, to discuss how Aduna is poised to reshape the network API landscape. We covered everything from the role of telcos in the API economy to the challenges of launching a joint venture (JV) with over a dozen carriers. With MWC Barcelona just around the corner, we also explored what’s next for the industry.
We’re especially excited about this conversation because Aduna recently joined the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance, further strengthening the ecosystem of players working to accelerate innovation in CPaaS and network APIs.
What is Aduna? A Joint Venture for Network APIs
Aduna is a joint venture between Ericsson and more than a dozen telcos, created to unlock the power of network APIs for developers and enterprises. The name “Aduna” itself means “coming together”, reflecting its mission to harmonize and simplify access to network capabilities that have traditionally been locked within telco infrastructure.
As Anthony explains, telcos have collectively spent trillions on building sophisticated networks, but much of that value remains untapped by developers. Aduna aims to bridge this gap, offering standardized APIs that make it easy for developers to access secure, high-performance telco capabilities.
Ericsson, Vonage, and Aduna: How It All Fits Together
One of the common questions around Aduna is how it fits into the Ericsson-Vonage ecosystem. Anthony clarifies that Vonage operates on the demand side, utilizing Aduna’s APIs to create CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) solutions. Meanwhile, Aduna serves as the central aggregation layer, bringing together APIs from multiple telcos to ensure global coverage and interoperability.
In essence, Aduna provides the infrastructure, while Vonage, Infobip, Google, and others build applications and services on top of it. This structure allows enterprises and developers to consume telco capabilities more easily while ensuring that carriers remain a key part of the value chain.
Why This Time is Different for Telco APIs
Telcos have tried and failed before to create scalable API businesses. So why will Aduna succeed where past efforts—like RCS messaging and telco payment solutions—fell short?
Ferry points to one major difference: scale and collaboration.
Historically, telcos have been fragmented, each developing its own proprietary solutions. That lack of coordination made it impossible to build a unified market. Aduna changes the game by bringing together leading telcos from North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond to offer a single, standardized set of APIs.
For enterprises, this means they no longer need to negotiate with multiple carriers to access global telco capabilities. Instead, they can integrate once with Aduna and gain instant access to a broad global footprint, covering 70-75% of devices worldwide.
The Challenge: Engaging Developers
For Aduna to succeed, it needs developers and enterprises to start building real-world applications using these APIs. Ferry emphasizes that the industry’s focus should shift from “selling APIs” to solving actual business problems.
For example, fraud prevention and identity verification are huge pain points for financial institutions. With new regulations in the UK requiring age verification for online content, network-based identity APIs could provide a privacy-friendly alternative to traditional methods like credit card verification or facial recognition.
By working closely with enterprises, Aduna and its partners can identify high-value use cases and create APIs that developers actually want to use.
MWC 2025: The Next Big Milestone
With MWC Barcelona just days away, Anthony and Ferry expect major announcements and developer engagement initiatives to take center stage. The event will be a key moment for Aduna to showcase its ecosystem, expand partnerships, and continue building momentum.
A critical focus at MWC will be securing and growing the supply side—ensuring that more telcos onboard their APIs to Aduna’s platform. The demand is already there, as evidenced by interest from Google, Vonage, Infobip, and others, but the ecosystem will only thrive if telcos prioritize and scale their API offerings.
Ferry makes a bold call to action: instead of telcos chasing short-term revenue, the industry should commit to a $100 billion opportunity over the next five years. The potential for network APIs to redefine enterprise connectivity, security, and digital experiences is enormous—if the industry can work together to execute at scale.
Final Thoughts: The Time for Action is Now
Aduna represents a fundamental shift in how telcos approach network APIs. By centralizing complexity and standardizing access, it has the potential to unlock new revenue streams for carriers while giving developers and enterprises the tools they need to innovate.
With major players aligning behind this vision, MWC 2024 will be a proving ground for whether this new era of open telco collaboration can finally deliver on its promise.
As Anthony puts it: “The momentum behind us makes me feel pretty good about this journey. The season is right.”
My lifetime in IT and telecoms has been dedicated to innovation, building bridges and creating change. From the early days of cloud communications to working with operators on innovations and business development, and currently emphasizing APIs, CPaaS/CX and AI, my journey has been one of continuous evolution.
As founding partner at CPaaS Acceleration Alliance and The Next Cloud I'm privileged to help global telcos and techcos thrive in a fast changing world - through events, community building, strategy and global business development. I thrive on challenges and change, strategizing in cloud communications, and bringing people together for mutual success. Travel and continuous learning are my passions.
I believe the global communications industry is pivoting to prioritize customer experience and impactful solutions over mere technology and platforms, and we can tackle societal challenges by merging the strengths of corporates and innovators within new ecosystems.
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