More than 23 companies, including AT&T and Verizon, are either in production with LSO Sonata APIs or intend to be within the next nine months. According to the companies the biggest benefits of implementing MEF-standardised APIs for the automation of business-to-business interactions between service providers is, the acceleration of service delivery; the acceleration of time to revenue; and improving customer experience and loyalty.
“AT&T is leading the global implementation of MEF LSO Sonata APIs through our ecosystem. We’re seeing an acceleration in the number of global providers working towards a 2021 implementation and an increase in the number of providers who were actively discussing and evaluating the benefits of MEF Sonata API adoption,” said John Nolan, vice president of global connections & alliance management at AT&T.
“Standardised APIs for interoperability of business applications will vastly improve the customer experience through faster cycle times and resolving service delivery issues earlier, offering automated near real-time availability and pricing information.”
Companies who are currently in production with LSO Sonata are AT&T, Axtel Networks, Bloomberg, China Unicom Global Limited, Colt Technology Services, HGC Global Communications, Lumen, Orange, PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telia, and Zayo.
While Companies CMC Networks, Proximus, TELUS, TIME dotCom, Verizon Business Group, and others, have committed to implementing LSO Sonata in the near future.
“Verizon values MEF LSO APIs because they drive end-to-end automation, resulting in improved customer experience and lower total cost of ownership," said Aamir Hussain, senior vice president and at Verizon Business and chief product officer and chairman at MEF.
"They are a great example of how Verizon Business and MEF work together to improve digital transformation for our customers and deliver on our Network as a Service strategy."
The new APIs, services, and programs will support service providers throughout their LSO adoption journey, this includes evaluation and business-case development to the testing, production, and certification phases of implementation.
“The leading global service providers are collaborating to build an emerging business ecosystem of automated networks that supports the rapid delivery of digital services across multiple providers and reduce friction in connecting enterprise users to cloud applications,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF.
“MEF LSO APIs are taking off because they offer an automated, standardised way for service providers to turn up services in seconds, not days. And now, with new services, programs, and resources designed to accelerate LSO implementation, MEF is taking away pain points throughout the adoption and implementation journey.”
The MEF LSO API Framework is a set of SDKs containing APIs, tools, documentation, and underlying standards for delivering frictionless service provider commerce. The new Billie release includes support for automated business functionalities.
A new MEF LSO Onboarding and Interoperability Test (OIT) Service, which uses buyer and seller emulators, offers an efficient, predictable, and scalable solution that providers can use to test their LSO Sonata implementations and perform interop testing with partners.
Also launching in October 2021 is a new MEF 3.0 LSO API Certification Service, which includes the MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata Certification and Registry.
