Their efforts include integrating the A2A protocol and MCP as a step towards building an ‘agent economy’ and eventually an agentic monetisation ecosystem
Telefónica announced a collaboration with Nokia to explore agentic AI methods in accelerating the adoption of network APIs. The companies are participants in the GSMA Open Gateway Initiative. Their joint effort focuses on testing two new AI protocols – Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
The A2A protocol enables multiple AI agents to coordinate complex workflows by discovering, communicating and collaborating dynamically. MCP standardises how AI systems access external tools and data in a consistent and secure manner.
By integrating the two protocols, Telefónica and Nokia aim to streamline the process of exposing and consuming network APIs, making it easier for industry partners and developers to build and deliver new services efficiently. The rationale is that this will lead to new monetisation models and show how the ‘agent economy’ can be adopted, paving the way toward “a fully agentic monetisation ecosystem”.
The development started with testing an agent to prevent bank fraud in a lab. Telefonica’s testbed uses an MCP server, provided by Nokia’s Network Exposure Platform, to expose network APIs and other resources that benefit the bank fraud prevention application. They include SIM swap and device swap among others.
Nokia’s Network as Code platform aggregates these capabilities from Telefónica to simplify exposure to banks’ application developers in an A2A format.
The companies say they have “numerous” other use-case examples they plan to test together. They will share insights from this initiative with the industry to foster standardisation and accelerate the ecosystem’s growth.
“Telefónica is committed to driving open innovation in network exposure and automation. By working with Nokia to pilot these advanced AI protocols, we are laying the groundwork for faster and more scalable adoption of Network APIs. Being prepared to expose AI Agents is key to continuing to monetize our capabilities,” said Cayetano Carbajo, Core, Transport and Ecosystem Director at CTIO, speaking on behalf of Telefónica.
Shkumbin Hamiti, Head of Network Monetization Platform at Nokia, added, “By combining AI protocols with Nokia’s Network Exposure and Network as Code platforms, we enable secure, consistent access to network capabilities and let AI agents coordinate complex workflows, end to end. The result is an actionable, developer‑friendly experience that moves our industry one step closer to an agent‑driven monetization ecosystem.”
