• Ericsson retains a 50% stake in Aduna Global, with the rest owned by AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon and other operators
• The joint venture builds on the CAMARA open source project to offer APIs for authentication, service assurance and more
• Aduna plans to scale network APIs globally, creating new ways for developers to tap into 5G capabilities

Ericsson has formally established Aduna Global, completing equity investments by 12 communications service providers in a joint venture to expedite network APIs implementations.

Ericsson retains a 50% share in the joint venture, with the other half shared by operators including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, Verizon and others.  Aduna also includes partnerships with hyperscalers, systems integrators and other tech companies, including Google Cloud, Microsoft and Wipro. 

The APIs, based on the CAMARA open source project of the GSMA and Linux Foundation, are designed to enable network operators to offer services such as service level assurance, fraud prevention and authentication programmatically to application developers, similar to how those same application developers can easily spin up cloud compute instances on cloud providers like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. For telcos and other network operators, network APIs promise the potential to leverage 5G networks for new business models and revenue streams. 

Ericsson already provides some network APIs through its expensive purchase of Vonage in 2021. Former Vonage COO Anthony Bartolo was named Aduna’s CEO in January.

“In just ten months, we have built an impressive ecosystem comprising the biggest names in telecoms and the wider ICT industry,” Bartolo said in a statement. “The closing provides renewed motivation for Aduna to accelerate the adoption of network APIs by developers on a global scale. This includes encouraging more telecom operators to join the new company, further driving the industry and developer experience.”

Aduna Global can potentially scale network APIs across regions, and maybe even globally, Leonard Lee, executive analyst at neXt Curve, told Fierce.  Aduna can potentially help deliver trust and regulatory clients that network APIs need for widespread adoption.

Aduna itself won’t directly offer services Aduna partners such as JT Global, Vonage and AWS already offer fraud prevention services that leverage relevant security and authentication-related network APIs, Lee said. 

“You won’t likely see Aduna Global offer a fraud prevention service,” he added. “You need to look at Vonage, Infobip, Tech Mahindra and the like to offer these solutions that will likely be accessible to developers through APIs.”