It’s been a year since the GSMA announced its Open Gateway initiative and the telco industry is working to figure out how to monetize network APIs to their full advantage. For this episode, I talk with McKinsey & Company Partner Ferry Grijpink about the API economy and what operators need to do to capture revenue and build their strategic position. Listen now to hear: 

• Ferry’s advice for telecoms that want to monetize network APIs [03:18];
• How telcos can leverage established relationships with enterprise customers to attract developers [06:58]; 
• Ferry’s opinion on whether it’s important for telcos to own the developer relationship [09:22]; and
• The importance of developing valuable use cases for network APIs to accelerate their adoption [13:22].

Links and Resources

• Check out these resources from McKinsey & Company:
  • Navigating the three horizons of 5G business building
  • What separates B2B GTM outperformers in tech and telecom
• Read more about Whoosh! and sign up for a meeting and demo at MWC24.
• Read more about the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative and its DevCon event at MWC24 on February 28.
• Three Brazilian operators—Claro, TIM, and Vivo—just joined Open Gateway, bringing the total to nearly 40 operators on the Open Gateway train. 
• In this video, Ross Ortega, VP product management at Microsoft Azure, weighs in on Open Gateway, Azure Programmable Connectivity Architecture, and the future of network APIs
• If you build it, they will come worked in the movie Field of Dreams, but I’m not sure it’s going to work for Network APIs. Not even if you had it to Azure and leverage their developer ecosystem. I think for this one, telcos, you’re going to have to do some work.
• Ferry is a return guest on the Telco in 20 podcast. Don’t miss our conversation in episode 45, Drumming up ways to increase ARPU with McKinsey. I *still* owe him dinner for disrupting his talk! Maybe I’ll catch him in Barcelona.
• A rare Ferry and DR sighting in the wild! I got the chance to meet Ferry in person for the first time a few months ago at TM Forum in Copenhagen.
• You can find the transcript for this episode here.

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This week’s guest

About Ferry Grijpink

Ferry leads the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity within McKinsey & Company’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice, and advises telecommunications companies on strategy, marketing, and operations, including mobile operators that are launching adjacent businesses in areas such as mobile health and money services. He also co-leads McKinsey’s research on deploying and commercializing next-generation infrastructures, such as fiber, mobile broadband, and 5G networks.

Podcast Credits

• Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Royston, TelcoDR
• Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
• Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
• Editing: Andrew Condell
• Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
• Music: Dyami Wilson