This is not a collaboration like any other. It is a groundbreaking partnership that is redefining the future of telecommunications and digital services. Our cooperation with MasOrange, Telefónica, and Vodafone Group in establishing the Open Gateway Multi-Telco Innovation Lab marks a significant milestone in bringing advanced network capabilities to developers and companies alike. This initiative, built on a shared vision of innovation and social impact, demonstrates the transformative power of public-private collaboration in a dynamic industry.
i2CAT, alongside MasOrange, Telefónica, and Vodafone Group, launched Europe’s first multi-operator Open Gateway laboratory in Barcelona in 2024. This innovation lab serves as a developer-ready environment, allowing companies and creators to explore and leverage telco capabilities through standardised APIs. Our mission is clear: to accelerate the adoption of interoperable APIs, foster the development of joint use cases, and unify performance in an accessible and collaborative setting. A prime example of this success is the ViRe application, our first Open Gateway use case, which significantly enhances security for individuals protected by restraining orders. i2CAT has played a crucial role, leading the integration and ensuring the success of these pioneering tests.
Historically, accessing and integrating the advanced capabilities of telecommunications networks has been a complex endeavour for developers. Each operator often presented unique interfaces, creating fragmentation and hindering rapid innovation. The global telco industry, led by the GSMA, recognised this challenge and initiated Open Gateway – a movement to transform telecommunications networks into programmable platforms. This paradigm shift required a collaborative approach to open network capabilities and deliver them to everyone under a common framework, such as CAMARA, an open-source project of the Linux Foundation and TM Forum. Our challenge was to facilitate this transformation, create a unified environment, and demonstrate how telco APIs could address real-world, critical social needs.
In October 2024, we launched the Open Gateway Multi-Telco Innovation Lab, a dedicated space to overcome these challenges. As the coordinator of this joint innovation lab, i2CAT has been instrumental, leading the integration, connecting operators, and ensuring the success of performance tests for existing and newly created APIs. Our expertise helps to optimise API performance, ensuring a fluid development experience and unified performance for innovative applications.
Our first major achievement within this lab was the development of the ViRe application, in partnership with the Spanish technology company LAUDE, which was presented during Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2025. ViRe is a multi-operator mobile application designed to enhance security for individuals protected by restraining orders. It leverages various Open Gateway APIs, including Device Location Verification, Quality on Demand, Number Verification, Know Your Customer, and Device Swap, and integrates Artificial Intelligence algorithms for enhanced security and reliability.
ViRe’s innovative features include:
This proof-of-concept showcases how telco networks can enable instant decision-making to enhance protection for vulnerable individuals.
The impact of this collaboration is profound and far-reaching.
For i2CAT, this initiative is a relevant milestone for our centre. It allows us to transfer our cutting-edge knowledge in technological research to the network platforms market, demonstrating the transformative potential of public-private collaborations. We are driving the adoption of APIs within the developer ecosystem and identifying new, high-impact use cases.
For our telco partners (MasOrange, Telefónica, Vodafone Group), this collaboration proves that working together is crucial for the API industry to prosper, creating standardised solutions that benefit everyone. It represents a paradigm shift in how the telecommunications sector designs and markets new applications and digital services, opening up capabilities for more agile and efficient developments that improve user experience.
This first use case with ViRe is just the beginning. Our Multi-Telco Innovation Lab continues to drive the adoption of APIs by the developer ecosystem and actively identifies new use cases. We are committed to fostering an open discussion environment based on technological and business innovation criteria, ensuring that new APIs and use cases consider the needs of various industries.
As Ana Moliner, Head of Innovation Business Development at i2CAT, highlights, “this model opens up new opportunities for companies to devise innovative applications with a great social impact by taking advantage of the network’s advanced capabilities. This new paradigm will allow us to offer new and better services to citizens”. We are excited to continue this journey with MasOrange, Telefónica, and Vodafone Group, and we look forward to unveiling many new possibilities for the digital ecosystem, further enhancing the value of multi-operator cooperation.
