On this page · 11 sections
- What GSMA has confirmed for MWC27
- Why network APIs are the MWC27 story for app builders
- The three APIs to evaluate first
- India: where Airtel, Jio and Vi stand
- 5G-Advanced and 6G at MWC27: what to expect
- Decision table: network APIs in 2027
- Worked example: when silent verification beats SMS OTP
- Questions to ask operators and aggregators at MWC27
- US, EU and UK notes, and privacy
- How eCorpIT can help
- References
Summary. GSMA lists MWC Barcelona 2027 from Monday 1 March to Thursday 4 March 2027 at Fira Barcelona Gran Via. MWC26 drew nearly 105,000 attendees from 207 countries and territories. For app builders the useful story is network APIs. GSMA said in March 2026 that 86 operator groups, more than 300 networks and 80% of global mobile connections align with Open Gateway, with more than 300 commercial launches of 20 CAMARA APIs in 65 markets. Start with Number Verification (2.1.1), SIM Swap (2.2.0) and Quality on Demand (1.1.0), but ask which version each operator runs. In India, GSMA's launch map of 31 October 2026 lists SIM Swap on Airtel, Jio and Vi and Number Verification on Jio and Vi, not Airtel, which launched its own silent authentication on 5 October 2026. Telco Titans reported concern in July 2026 about slower-than-expected growth. 3GPP's first 6G package goes to plenaries from 15 March 2027, after the show closes, so expect 6G roadmaps, not 6G products. Our verdict: go to MWC27 with a fraud or onboarding use case and an operator shortlist, not a 6G plan.
About this article. For product, identity and platform teams deciding whether network APIs belong on their 2027 roadmap. On 1 November 2026 we checked event details against GSMA and MWC Barcelona pages, and API status against CAMARA's GitHub releases, GSMA's launch map data and operator statements. SIM binding dates come from the PIB release of 1 December 2025 and a Rajya Sabha answer of 2 April 2026. Agendas change before the show and operators do not publish Indian prices. General information, not legal advice on the DPDP Act or GDPR; no vendor, operator or aggregator paid for inclusion. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.
What GSMA has confirmed for MWC27
The table draws on the MWC Barcelona home and themes pages, GSMA's event page and the MWC26 closing release.
| Item | Detail | Status on 1 November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Dates and venue | Monday 1 March to Thursday 4 March 2027, Fira Gran Via, Barcelona | Confirmed by GSMA |
| Expected audience | GSMA pitches over 100,000 decision makers; MWC26 had nearly 105,000 attendees from 207 countries and territories | MWC26 actuals; 2027 figures after the show |
| Themes | Networks Reinvented, AI in Action, Autonomous Enterprise, AI of Tomorrow, Trust at Scale, The Next Era | Confirmed |
| First keynotes | Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs), Amy Webb (Future Today Strategy Group), Yoon Young Park (KT), Anima Anandkumar (Caltech), Hany Farid (GetReal Security) | Confirmed; more to be added |
| New programme | Connect Health, with Mobile World Capital Barcelona across MWC27 and 4YFN | Confirmed |
| Speaker submissions | Close 5 November 2026, 23:00 CET | Confirmed |
Not yet published: the full agenda and exhibitor list (both pages still show 2026), the 2027 date for the Open Gateway Summit, held on 4 March at MWC26, and 2027 pass prices. The site offers only a register-interest form.
Networks Reinvented covers 5G-Advanced, Open RAN, satellite integration and private networks. Trust at Scale covers digital identity and secure financial systems, which is where fraud-prevention APIs sit.
Why network APIs are the MWC27 story for app builders
A network API lets an app ask the mobile network a question, or request a behaviour, through a standard interface. Does this phone number belong to the device in this session? Has this SIM changed in the last 24 hours? Can this video session get a stable-latency profile for 30 minutes?
CAMARA is the open-source project, run under the Linux Foundation, that defines these APIs. It works with the GSMA Operator Platform Group, and its API definitions and reference implementations are free to use under the Apache 2.0 licence. GSMA Open Gateway is the operator programme built on those APIs.
Beyond the headline numbers in our summary, GSMA's Henry Calvert counted more than 60 channel partners on 4 March 2026, and said developers find fraud prevention most appealing, followed by mobile payments. Commercial APIs have grown from eight in 2023 to 20.
GSMA's launch map data, generated on 31 October 2026, holds 670 entries across 66 countries and 23 API names. An entry is one API operation on one operator, so that total is not comparable with the March count. The map also lags: it has no US Number Verification entry, though Aduna announced one in July.
Aggregators matter because few app teams want 40 operator contracts. Aduna, a joint venture of Ericsson and 12 operators including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, said in March 2026 that it covered 40 operators and offered services in six countries including the USA and Germany, with India, the UK and five others to follow in coming months. Its developer partner platforms include Google Cloud, Infobip, Sinch and Vonage.
Now the caveat. Telco Titans reported on 9 July 2026 that Open Gateway, once a standalone flagship, now forms part of two GSMA working groups, amid concern about slow growth in network APIs. We could read only the published summary. Treat it as a reason to check live coverage before you design around an API.
The three APIs to evaluate first
Versions come from CAMARA's GitHub releases and India status from GSMA's map.
| API | What it returns | Latest public CAMARA version | Typical use | India on GSMA's map |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number Verification | True or false: does the number match the authenticated device? Optional device number retrieval | 2.1.1, 19 Oct 2026 | Onboarding, login, account recovery | Jio 2.0.0 (Nov 2025); Vi 1.0.0 via IPification (Jan 2026); no Airtel entry |
| SIM Swap | Timestamp of the last SIM change, or yes or no within a period; subscription mode for alerts | 2.2.0, 30 Oct 2026 | Bank fraud checks, password reset, high-value transactions | Airtel 1.0.0; Jio 0.4.0 and 2.1.0; Vi 0.4.0 via IPification |
| Quality on Demand (QoD) | QoS sessions from predefined profiles for stable latency or prioritised throughput, with callbacks | 1.1.0, 16 Sep 2025; 1.2.0 is at release candidate 4 | Live video, gaming, telemedicine, industrial IoT | No entry |
CAMARA's public site still lists Fall25 versions (Number Verification and SIM Swap 2.1.0, QoD 1.1.0). The newer tags belong to its Sync26 cycle, the renamed Fall26 release.
The bigger gap is between specification and network. On the map, 135 of 163 Number Verification entries are on 0.3.1 or 1.0.0, and 152 of 226 SIM Swap entries are on 0.4.0. Build to what your operator runs, not to CAMARA's latest tag.
Number Verification
CAMARA describes it as checking whether the number used in a digital journey matches the number on the authenticated device, through network-based or SIM-based silent authentication. The user receives no SMS code. A verify call takes a plain or hashed number and returns true or false; a retrieval call returns the device's number where supported and legally allowed. Release 2.1.1 adds token rules (single use, no refresh tokens, expiry within 300 seconds) and a companion paper on acquiring operator tokens on Android.
On Android, Google's Phone Number Verification API takes a related route. It fetches an encrypted GSMA TS.43 token by authenticating the SIM, and your backend exchanges it with an aggregator or carrier for the verified number. Google says telephony charges would arise at that exchange. Confirm Indian carrier coverage with your aggregator.
SIM Swap
SIM Swap returns when the SIM behind a number last changed, or a yes or no for a window such as the last 24 hours, and a subscription mode pushes notifications. GSMA cites UK banks detecting SIM-swap scams at scale in real time. The limit: the signal is at number level. It does not prove the SIM is in the handset running your app.
Quality on Demand
QoD lets an app request stable latency or prioritised throughput for a data flow by choosing a predefined QoS profile, then create, query and delete the session. It is the thinnest of the three. The map shows 12 entries from seven operators in China, the US, Spain, Vietnam and Brazil, on versions no later than 0.11.0. Ericsson counted 84 commercial offerings based on 5G SA network slicing in June 2026, up from 65 six months earlier. Slicing is not QoD, so measure whether QoD improves your sessions before paying at scale.
Also on the map: Device Swap, KnowYourCustomer, Device Location Verification, Call Forwarding Signal and Carrier Billing.
India: where Airtel, Jio and Vi stand
On 9 October 2025, at India Mobile Congress, GSMA announced that Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea had launched SIM Swap and planned a CAMARA-based Number Verification API before the end of 2025. The APIs are meant to be federated: one integration across all three networks.
A year on, the record is uneven:
- Reliance Jio. The map lists certified Number Verification 2.0.0 from 10 November 2025 and SIM Swap 2.1.0 from 1 May 2026.
- Vi. The map lists Number Verification 1.0.0 and SIM Swap 0.4.0 from 11 January 2026 through IPification. In June 2026 Vi began silent verification for its subscribers on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, as reported by TelecomTalk and ID Tech.
- Airtel. The map lists SIM Swap 1.0.0 and six other APIs, but no Number Verification. On 5 October 2026 Airtel Business launched IQ Gateway nationwide, with silent authentication that replaces SMS OTP for login and SIM-binding flows. Airtel's release does not say it is the CAMARA API.
- Aduna. It listed India as coming months in March 2026. No Indian entry on the map names Aduna.
GSMA's 8 October 2026 release says only that the three operators support Open Gateway frameworks for number verification and SIM swap signals. Our read on 1 November 2026: SIM Swap is available on all three, Number Verification is listed on two, and the single federated integration still needs proving. Ask for it by operator and version, in writing.
The fraud case is plain in GSMA's India Consumer Scam Report 2026: 12% of respondents said they were scammed in the previous year, 72% changed their behaviour, and 67% of victims who lost money recovered none of it.
Link to India's SIM binding rule. DoT issued SIM binding directions on 28 November 2025, and the government told the Rajya Sabha on 2 April 2026 that compliance is due by 31 December 2026. Our SIM binding guide for app developers covers the rule. Number Verification can prove number possession on the device at sign-up without an SMS code, and SIM Swap can flag a change behind a number afterwards. Neither proves continuous on-device SIM presence, so you still need device-side checks.
5G-Advanced and 6G at MWC27: what to expect
3GPP's Release 21 timeline puts the first 6G package approval and Stage-1 freeze in March 2027, and Release 20, the last 5G-Advanced-only release, is planned to reach Stage-3 that month. The plenaries are listed for Rotterdam from 15 March, 11 days after MWC27 closes. ITU's window for candidate 6G radio technologies opens in February 2027. Our 3GPP Release 21 guide explains the timeline in full.
- 6G demos will be prototypes. Stage-3 protocols freeze in December 2028. A Qualcomm-led coalition targets spec-compliant pre-commercial demonstrations in 2028 and commercial systems from 2029 onwards, Ericsson expects first services around 2030, and NGMN points to the early 2030s. Nothing on the MWC27 floor can claim 6G standard compliance.
- 5G-Advanced is what ships. The Networks Reinvented theme names it directly. Ask which features reach developers through APIs.
- Agentic access to APIs is the new pitch. At MWC26, Telefónica and Nokia showed pilots using Agent-to-Agent (A2A) and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for API discovery, chaining and entitlement checks. Our MCP authentication comparison covers the access-control side.
Decision table: network APIs in 2027
| Pick this | If | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Number Verification | Sign-up or login conversion suffers from SMS OTP delays, and your users' operators support it | Coverage gaps; keep SMS or passkeys as fallback |
| SIM Swap | You move money, reset passwords or approve high-value actions | Number-level signal only; combine with device signals |
| Quality on Demand | Live video, remote operations or telemedicine need predictable latency in specific markets | Very few listed launches; prove the gain before scaling |
| An aggregator or channel partner (Aduna, Vonage, Infobip, Sinch, Google Cloud, IPification) | You serve several operators or countries | Coverage lists differ; ask for India by operator |
| Direct operator integration | You need one operator, deep support or custom terms | Separate contracts per operator |
| Waiting | Your markets have no launches or your volumes are small | Revisit after MWC27 announcements |
For the fallback, our guide to passkeys versus SMS OTP in India sets out the migration path.
Worked example: when silent verification beats SMS OTP
We found no published per-call prices for Indian operators, so this is a break-even formula with illustrative inputs, not market rates. Replace them with your quotes.
Define, per month:
- V = verifications attempted
- s = price of one SMS OTP; r = average SMS sends per successful verification, including retries
- n = price of one Number Verification call
- c = share of users whose operator supports Number Verification
- f = share of Number Verification attempts that fail and fall back to SMS
SMS-only cost = V × r × s. Mixed cost = V × c × (n + f × r × s) + V × (1 − c) × r × s.
Silent verification is cheaper per supported user when n < r × s × (1 − f).
Illustrative inputs: V = 1,000,000, s = 1 price unit, r = 1.3, n = 1 unit, f = 0.1, c = 0.61. That c is Jio's 42% plus Vi's 19% from the market shares on GSMA's map, so it is a ceiling: Wi-Fi sessions and failed lookups lower it.
- SMS-only: 1,000,000 × 1.3 × 1 = 1,300,000 units.
- Mixed: 1,000,000 × 0.61 × (1 + 0.1 × 1.3) = 689,300 units, plus 1,000,000 × 0.39 × 1.3 = 507,000 units, total 1,196,300 units.
- Saving: 103,700 units, or 8.0%.
- Break-even price: n < 1.3 × 0.9 = 1.17 units. Above that, the case rests on conversion and fraud savings, not message cost.
Coverage (c) and SMS retries (r) dominate. Get both from your own logs before you negotiate.
Questions to ask operators and aggregators at MWC27
- Which CAMARA APIs and versions are commercially live on each Indian operator today, not planned?
- Does one integration really cover Airtel, Jio and Vi? Is Airtel's silent authentication the CAMARA API?
- What share of Indian traffic can you verify silently, by operator and by Wi-Fi versus mobile data?
- How are calls priced: per call, per successful check, or bundled? What happens on failures?
- How do you handle consent and data minimisation under DPDP and GDPR?
- Can your platform expose these APIs to AI agents through MCP, and how are entitlements checked?
- Which QoD profiles are offered in which cities, and how do you report whether a session got its profile?
US, EU and UK notes, and privacy
In the US, Aduna said on 8 July 2026 that it was rolling out Number Verification with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. In Europe, GSMA's MWC26 round-up lists joint fraud-prevention initiatives by operators in Poland and Italy. In the UK, the map lists Number Verification on Vodafone and Three UK and SIM Swap on four operators.
Treat phone numbers and SIM-change events as personal data under India's DPDP Act and the EU and UK GDPR. Most DPDP duties start on 13 May 2027, as our DPDP Rules checklist explains. CAMARA's consent repositories, ConsentInfo and ConsentManagement, are still labelled sandbox. Record the purpose, keep results only as long as your fraud model needs them, and say so in your privacy notice.
How eCorpIT can help
eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. Our application development services team builds Number Verification and SIM Swap integrations with SMS and passkey fallbacks, and helps shortlist operators and aggregators before MWC27. Talk to us at /contact-us/.
Last updated: 1 November 2026.
