Telecommunications giant AT&T and Colt Technology Services, a provider of network, voice, data centre and managed cloud services, have successfully completed the integration of MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Sonata Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow business customers to virtually seamlessly order services across multiple carriers. The two companies claim to be the first in the telecom industry to use MEF’s LSO Sonata APIs to automate the ordering of Ethernet services.
Roman Pacewicz, Chief product officer, AT&T Business, said, “There’s no doubt this will change how carriers interact and operate in the industry. Our interactions are now more cost-efficient, flexible and error-free. We kicked off interoperability discussions and trials three years ago and gained important insights that will help create and refine industry standards under the guidance of MEF. The transformation of networks to a dynamic, on-demand, software-centric, cloud-based model opens up opportunities for everyone.”
The implementation of the MEF’s set of standardized LSO Sonata APIs is a revolutionary moment for the telecom industry, as it enables the automated ordering of Ethernet connections across alternative carrier’s networks. By using the Sonata API application, customers will experience the benefits of faster provisioning times, ramping up new Ethernet services in minutes instead of days or weeks. Furthermore, the notification functionality in the MEF API allows AT&T to track the progress of the order and receive virtually real-time updates from Colt’s system, through the delivery process to handover.
“Advancing interoperability is a key initiative of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum, a network of the leaders from the world’s largest wholesale carriers, who convene to discuss strategic issues and collaborative activities with the aim of driving the next phase of growth for the industry,” added George Sloan, Vice president, AT&T Global Connections and Alliance Management. “GLF has been supporting MEF LSO Sonata API work, which will enable network providers to more easily buy from and sell to each other and better meet the needs of our respective business customers.”
MEF President Nan Chen, also its founder, said, “We are thrilled with the strong and growing industry support for LSO Sonata APIs for inter-provider service automation. MEF especially appreciates the pioneering efforts of AT&T and Colt to implement LSO Sonata APIs in production environments. We couldn’t be more excited to see the creation and growth of this ecosystem that will support dynamic service automation moving forward.”
