For decades, telecom operators have been the invisible force behind the world’s digital revolution. They connected people, powered industries, and built the networks that carried the world’s ideas. But somewhere along the way, connectivity became a commodity. The pipes got faster, the margins thinner, and the hunger for growth sharper.

To stay relevant, telcos began to open their networks — first through APIs. The API economy promised to turn telcos into digital platforms, not just connectivity providers. APIs gave them a new voice in the developer ecosystem. They enabled enterprises to integrate capabilities like messaging, location, and identity directly into their applications.

But while telcos mastered the art of exposing capabilities, the world quietly shifted toward a new kind of value — intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence has become the defining technology of our time. From ChatGPT to Whisper, the explosion of open-source AI models has created possibilities once thought unimaginable. These models are open and abundant — but ironically, not truly accessible.

They exist in code repositories, cloud vaults, and research labs. To use them, enterprises need expensive GPU infrastructure, massive storage, specialized data pipelines, and deep technical expertise. For many local enterprises, governments, and developers — especially in emerging markets — this barrier is simply too high.

And that’s where telcos can change the game again.

 

The Untapped Opportunity

Telcos sit on the most underappreciated advantage in the AI race: proximity. They already operate massive, distributed infrastructure — cloud and edge data centers placed within countries, closer to users and data sources. They own secure networks trusted by regulators and enterprises alike. They already handle sensitive data at scale, under strict compliance environments.

So what if telcos could use these same strengths not just to connect devices — but to deliver intelligence?

That’s where the idea of the Telco AI Marketplace emerges.

Imagine a platform where a telco hosts open-source AI models — LLaMA, Mistral, Whisper, directly on its own infrastructure. Developers and enterprises could instantly consume these models through APIs, fine-tune them with their own local data, and build region-specific AI

applications — all without worrying about GPU costs, cross-border data flow, or compliance risk.

The telco, in this scenario, becomes a trusted AI enabler. It turns its infrastructure into a living, breathing AI cloud — one that brings the power of open-source models to local innovation ecosystems.

Making AI Local, Responsible, and Real

This shift isn’t just about technology — it’s about accessibility and sovereignty. Many countries today are grappling with data localization mandates. Enterprises are wary of sending sensitive data to global cloud providers hosted in distant regions. Developers want access to AI tools, but not at the cost of performance or privacy.

A telco-hosted AI Marketplace solves all of this elegantly. It allows data to stay within borders, ensures low-latency access, and offers AI under the governance of a trusted national entity.

For instance, a bank in Saudi Arabia could build Arabic-language chatbots powered by open models fine-tuned locally, with all data processed securely within the country. A logistics company in Kenya could use edge-hosted computer vision models to monitor fleet efficiency in real time. A retail enterprise in India could integrate telco-provided identity APIs with AI models for hyper-personalized marketing — all through a unified AI platform.

The possibilities stretch far beyond traditional telecom boundaries

The Business of Intelligence

The beauty of this vision lies in its economics. AI models may be open, but the infrastructure, governance, and accessibility layers are where true value resides. Telcos can monetize compute power, API consumption, data storage, and compliance frameworks — the same way they once monetized connectivity or APIs.

In other words, the AI Marketplace is not about selling models. It’s about selling the means to make them useful.

And that’s where Comviva steps in.

How Comviva helps you get there

At Comviva, we’ve already seen telcos succeed in the API era with our API Marketplace platform: exposing, cataloguing, monetising network capabilities. Now, we’re extending that proven foundation into the AI era.

We offer a white-label AI Marketplace solution that:

• Lets you host open-source models on your infrastructure
• Expose AI-APIs and SDKs for developers
• Integrate your network APIs (identity, device context, location) for enriched use-cases
• Provide billing, usage analytics, guardrails (compliance, privacy, local data hosting)
• Enable enterprises to build fast, deploy fast, scale faster

In short: you don’t need to reinvent the wheel — you need to shift it into a new gear. We provide the platform. You bring the infrastructure and enterprise relationships. Together, we unlock the next monetization wave.

The story ahead

Picture this: A regional telco launches an AI Marketplace this quarter. In six months, it has five enterprise wins: a fintech using local-hosted LLM for Arabic chatbots, a smart-city partner using edge image analytics for traffic flow, a logistics firm using predictive analytics fed by network and device data. Monetisation flows. Infrastructure is reused. Differentiation emerges.

This is the future. Not just connectivity. Not just APIs. But intelligence, delivered locally, trusted, monetised. Telcos that embrace this won’t just survive — they’ll lead.

The Future: Where Connectivity Meets Cognition

The telecom industry has reinvented itself many times — from voice to data, from VAS to digital, from APIs to ecosystems. Now, it stands on the edge of its most profound transformation yet: the shift from connectivity to cognition.

AI will not just enhance telco operations — it will redefine telcos’ role in the digital economy. Those who embrace this shift early will move beyond being enablers of communication to becoming enablers of intelligence.

Comviva’s NGAGE AI Marketplace is built for that future — a world where telcos don’t just carry information, but help the world understand it.

Because the next big leap for telecom isn’t about more speed or bandwidth. It’s about giving intelligence a home — and helping every business, every developer, and every community access the true potential of AI, locally and responsibly.