Network as Code: How Telecom APIs Are Reshaping Application Development

In a significant shift toward greater automation and flexibility in telecommunications, industry leaders Nokia and Vodafone are spearheading a movement to transform networks into programmable platforms accessible to developers through APIs, a concept known as “Network as Code.”

“The next generation of applications will have very different demands for the network,” explains Mikko Jarva from Nokia. “We want to transform and digitalize the network for those applications. Part of the network needs to live within the application itself, so a developer can just take a line of code, integrate that into the application, and voila—the application becomes powered with all the network capabilities.”

This approach enables applications to shape network behavior, extract information from the network, and enhance service security, fundamentally changing how developers interact with telecommunications infrastructure.

Joe Wood from Vodafone, who refers to the initiative as “network APIs,” describes how his company has been developing these services over the past few years. At Mobile World Congress, Vodafone partnered with Nokia to power a hackathon where developers experimented with these capabilities.

“The services that developers were using for the hackathon include location services, verification and authentication services, anti-fraud products, and network configuration capabilities,” Wood explained. “Being able to make the configuration of the network accessible for the developer community via their applications gives customers a better experience, whether they’re trying to do broadcasting or remote surgery.”

Industry Collaboration Over Competition

What makes this initiative particularly noteworthy is its collaborative nature. Unlike traditional telecom services, Network as Code requires industry-wide cooperation to be truly effective.

“This is not a Vodafone-Nokia play as much as an ecosystem play,” Wood emphasized. “It’s more important than ever that we collaborate as an industry. Some application providers don’t know which network their end user is associated with. Here in Spain, they don’t know whether the customers are on Vodafone, Telefonica, or Orange.”

This reality necessitates consistency of services across telecom operators, with standardized design and exposure methods, ideally all accessible through the same platform. The goal is to create an environment where developers can build applications that work seamlessly across multiple networks and countries.

Developer Experience and Early Results

The initiative places significant emphasis on developer experience—making it easy for software creators to incorporate network capabilities into their applications. According to Jarva, early feedback has been positive.

“Developers are very agile to understand how to use the platform and have found it easy to use,” he noted. “The challenge for them is to understand the new capabilities that are now available. Based on the outcome of the hackathon, it really wasn’t a challenge in the end. There were some really nice innovations done in very short time, integrating these capabilities and building entire journeys in public safety, transportation optimization, and delivery services.”

Current Status and Future Outlook

While the concept shows promise, it’s still in its early stages of implementation. Wood noted that the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, which underpins much of this work, has been in development for a few years.

“Last year we were launching products that stretched across the Spanish market and the German market. This year, we’ve had 16 markets come to the table,” he said. The industry has also created a joint venture in this space and established a new standards body called Camara, which is focused on developer needs.

The challenge now lies in execution. “We need to focus on building out those services based on developer feedback, and we need to ensure we have scale with as many operators in each market offering these services,” Wood explained. “That’s the biggest task for 2025.”

As the initiative gains momentum, it represents a fundamental shift in how telecommunications networks operate—moving from closed systems to programmable platforms that can be tailored to specific application needs, potentially unlocking new business models and user experiences across multiple industries.

Source: Nokia YouTube channel