- Ericsson is working with LotusFlare on network APIs
- Analyst Leonard Lee told Fierce that API consent management from LotusFlare is important for Ericsson's Aduna efforts
- The vendor also took a minority stake in the BSS provider
Ericsson’s latest deal — and minority stake — in BSS provider LotusFlare shows how much the vendor wants to position its 5G network API venture Aduna as a network API exchange across regulatory jurisdictions, neXt Curve Executive Analyst Leonard Lee told Fierce.
Ericsson established a strategic partnership with LotusFlare this week to accelerate global uptake of network APIs among operators. Analysts Fierce has asked didn’t offer any comment on how much a “minority stake” in LotusFlare might constitute. The Silicon Valley-based BSS vendor has raised at least $10 million in funding so far, and has around 500 employees.
LotusFlare said that identity management and consent management are an important part of the network API scheme. The firm names various consent and authentication techniques for network API monetization.
“In the context of Network API monetization, Identity and Consent Management refers to the comprehensive system and processes that manage the digital identities of all parties interacting with the APIs (users, developers, applications) and, crucially, capture, store, and enforce the consent given by individuals regarding the use of their personal data,” LotusFlare said recently on LinkedIn.
“The consent management bit could be an interesting area of synergy between Lotusflare and Aduna Global,” said Lee. “Consent management would be an important service layer for Aduna Global’s exchange service capabilities.”
It is not yet clear how long it will take for Ericsson to integrate LotusFlare’s consent management tech into its Aduna network API software, but consent management is a hot topic today in light of AT&T suing T-Mobile over the its T-Life App.
"AT&T alleges that T-Mobile is using an automated bot to harvest private customer account information, deliberately circumventing AT&T’s security measures and scraping more than 100 categories of personal account information on AT&T customers, including billing history and physical address, installment plans and payoffs and usage details," wrote Fierce's own Monica Alleven today.
In the context of modern telecom APIs, especially APIs that expose network capabilities to third-party developers, consent management is crucial for monetization and security. Consent management acts as a gatekeeper for personal data accessed via telecom APIs, ensuring every transaction respects the user's explicit permissions.