Over the past two years, Network APIs have moved decisively from theory to reality. APIs are live. Platforms are launched. Press releases are plentiful. And yet, the industry still struggles to answer a simple but uncomfortable question: Where are the commercial success stories?
Not prototypes. Not announcements. Not “launched but not yet adopted.” But real enterprise adoption, repeatable deals, and defensible business cases. This gap is not a failure of technology; it is a failure of translation between networks and markets, APIs and outcomes, supply and demand. In 2026, the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance (CPaaSAA) wants to address that gap head-on.
Network APIs are ready but buyers are not
From Silent Authentication and Number Verification to SIM Swap and device intelligence, Network APIs finally deliver something the industry has promised for years: network-native trust and intelligence that applications can actually use. Yet most enterprises are still asking the same fundamental questions. Why should I switch from what I already use? Where exactly does the value show up? What does adoption really involve legally, operationally, and commercially? Who do I partner with, and what happens if it doesn’t work?
Today, those questions are rarely answered in one place or through one coherent conversation. Instead, enterprises encounter fragmented signals: API catalogues without business context, standards discussions without go-to-market clarity, vendor demos without comparability, and announcements without evidence. The result is predictable caution, inertia, and missed opportunity.
Why this problem persists
This is not an easy gap to close. Standards bodies quite rightly focus on supply-side alignment rather than buyer economics. Vendors and CPaaS providers are constrained by competitive narratives. Telcos often struggle to move beyond “capability launched” to “enterprise outcome delivered.” Analysts observe the market, but rarely orchestrate it.
What’s missing is a neutral, trusted space where the ecosystem can go beyond whitepapers, discuss pricing, switching costs, and ROI openly, and focus on how adoption actually happens in practice. That kind of conversation is difficult to host if you are selling something, standardizing something, or protecting a competitive position.
The cost of leaving the gap unaddressed
The consequences are already visible. Network APIs risk being perceived as “interesting, but not urgent.” Enterprises default to familiar legacy solutions. Telcos and CPaaS providers struggle to justify sustained investment. And the industry risks repeating patterns seen before IoT being the most obvious cautionary tale.
Most importantly, real impact is delayed. Enterprises miss out on better security and user experience, while ecosystem players miss the opportunity to build sustainable revenue models.
Why CPaaSAA can step in
The CPaaS Acceleration Alliance was not created to define standards or sell products. It exists to accelerate adoption and real-world impact.
Over time, CPaaSAA has brought together a uniquely diverse membership (telcos, CPaaS platforms, aggregators, vendors, and analysts) and earned a reputation for neutrality and trust. Its working groups focus on use cases and outcomes rather than specifications, and initiatives like the Case Directory already help distinguish ideas from real-world traction.
Crucially, CPaaSAA sits between communities: between telcos and enterprises, platforms and buyers, strategy and execution. That positioning allows it to convene conversations that others simply cannot or should not host alone.
A new kind of Network API workshop
In the first half of 2026, the CPaaSAA Telco API Working Group plans to pilot a new workshop format designed to bridge the commercial gap around Network APIs.
This is not a hackathon, a demo day, or a standards meeting. It is a practical, demand-side, outcome-driven workshop focused on
- where Network APIs genuinely make sense and where they don’t
- how enterprises evaluate switching decisions
- what real adoption involves, from pricing and consent to fallback and governance
- and how telcos and CPaaS providers can sell outcomes rather than APIs.
The workshops will be modular and flexible, running as half-day in-person sessions or online formats. They will be multi-vendor by design, co-created with CPaaSAA Working Group members, and initially focused on specific use cases and verticals, starting with fraud and identity. Vendor perspectives will be included in a structured and comparable way, with neutrality as the starting point.
Two audiences, one objective
There will be two closely related variants of the workshop. One is aimed at enterprises and developers, helping buyers understand whether, where, and how Network APIs can improve security, conversion, and cost and how to build a credible internal business case. The other is aimed at telcos, helping them move from “API launched” to “enterprise deal closed” by understanding buyer logic, packaging, monetization, and ecosystem roles.
Different lenses. The same framework. One shared goal: impact.
From growth to impact and platform
This initiative is also symbolic of CPaaSAA’s evolution. As the alliance transitions from growth to impact, and from community to platform, its role is shifting from convening conversations to enabling repeatable, practical outcomes.
If successful, this workshop model can become a reusable asset for members, a new way to engage enterprises, a concrete contribution to Network API adoption, and a blueprint for how the ecosystem collaborates beyond announcements.
An open invitation
We are now testing this idea with members, partners, and sponsors. If you are a CPaaS platform, vendor or aggregator, telco selling to enterprises, analyst, or ecosystem builder and you believe Network APIs deserve real adoption, not just attention – we would love to explore this with you.
Because if the industry doesn’t learn how to translate capability into value, no amount of APIs will change the outcome.
2026 is the year to fix that. Join us!
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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