o2 Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom y Vodafone launch two Open Gateway APIs in Germany

Open Gateway is a global telco industry initiative led by the GSMA. We first announced it at MWC 2023, and it has been growing ever since. The aim of Telefónica Open Gateway is to turn the network into the best ally for building new generation services. This will benefit developers, users and businesses - in short, the entire digital ecosystem.   

In just one year, the initiative has come a long way since its launch: new use cases, new APIs developed and new countries. And much more to come! So far, one of the biggest news of the past year has been its commercial launch in Brazil, Spain and now also in Germany.  

The Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona was the ideal context to present this great news to the industry. It is the world's largest technology and connectivity event where participating companies showcase their progress and developments. It was attended by various Telefónica executives and experts, including our Chairman José María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefónica and at the same time, Chairman of the GSMA.   

Telefónica's most prominent presentations and demos have been all those revolving around "Open Gateway". One of the big news announcements about the initiative was made by David del Val in his session "First Steps of Open Gateway at Telefónica", where he unveiled the commercial launch of Telefónica Open Gateway in Germany, with more details to come at the Open Gateway DevCon24 from the operators involved.   

Germany's leading operators, o2 Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom y Vodafone, have opened their mobile networks to companies and developers to offer services that bring more security and privacy to users. The first APIs to arrive in Germany are the anti-fraud focused Number Verification API and SIM Swap API, but there are many more to come. Here we tell you what each of these APIS brings to the table:

• API Number Verification: offers secure verification of a user's mobile number, providing a simple form of validation for any company using mobile numbers and one-time passwords via SMS. Programmers can implement it as a means to establish accounts in applications, ensuring secure, efficient and hassle-free verification of user identity. This is achieved by confirming the phone number, eliminating the need to enter codes in other applications to perform verification.
• API SIM Swap: allows you to check if a recent change has occurred in the SIM card associated with a specific phone number. The confirmation provided by this interface allows the entity to be notified in a more agile manner, reducing the risk of possible fraudulent account takeover attacks. In these attacks, fraudsters take control of the owner's SIM card and use stolen personal data. The use of this API facilitates a quick and efficient response, strengthening the prevention of fraudulent activities.  

Thanks to these APIs, the German market will have new tools to tackle online fraud, equipping itself with innovative digital services that bring security to its users. Through our Telefónica Open Gateway Partner Program, German companies will be able to access a series of resources, exclusive content and commercial support that will allow them to start marketing these APIs (either directly or indirectly) to include them in their digital solutions and thus boost their business, enrich their service offerings or improve the experience of their users. Also through the Developer Hub, developers can start testing their own use cases to develop new digital services that integrate the Open Gateway API catalogue.  
  
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