Smart Achieves PH’s First GSMA Open Gateway API Certification

PLDT’s wireless arm, Smart Communications Inc. (Smart), in collaboration with PLDT Enterprise, the corporate arm of PLDT, has become the first Philippine telco provider to achieve the Open Gateway API certification from GSMA for Number Verification APIs, marking a key industry milestone. This achievement reflects PLDT’s commitment to driving innovation, security, and digital transformation as it enhances network API capabilities to help businesses thrive in an evolving digital landscape.

By aligning with GSMA Open Gateway standards, Smart and PLDT Enterprise are reinforcing the Philippines’ position as a leader in API-driven digital transformation. This certification opens new opportunities for industries such as banking, e-commerce to retail, utilities, and fintech to integrate secure and scalable verification capabilities into their digital platforms.

“We are committed to helping businesses deliver secure and seamless experiences for their mobile app users,” said Jojo Gendrano, Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Business Group at PLDT and Smart. “The GSMA Open Gateway-certified API, starting with Number Verification, paves the way for accelerated adoption of next-generation authentication solutions. This is just the beginning, and we are looking forward to introducing more capabilities that can be leveraged by our customers, aggregators, and the developer community.”

With cyber threats and fraud on the rise, secure authentication and seamless digital transactions have become business priorities. The GSMA Open Gateway certification enables Smart, in collaboration with PLDT Enterprise, to provide secure and interoperable network APIs that enhance authentication. In the future, Open Gateway can be leveraged to further help prevent fraud, tap into location-based services, and dynamically define network quality.

Building on its Silent Authentication initiatives, which introduced more secure alternatives to traditional passwords and One-Time Pins (OTPs), Smart’s Open Gateway-certified Number Verification API allows businesses to offer frictionless and fraud-resistant authentication solutions, improving user experience while reducing security risks.

The GSMA Open Gateway initiative—developed in collaboration with the Camara open-source project under the Linux Foundation—ensures that network APIs are standardized, secure, and interoperable. By adopting these global standards, Smart and PLDT Enterprise are enabling businesses to integrate highly secure authentication and fraud prevention measures, reinforcing the country’s digital infrastructure.

This milestone also supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, further positioning the Philippines as a hub for technological progress.

As Smart and PLDT Enterprise continue to enhance their digital offerings, the Open Gateway API certification serves as a foundation for future innovations. Businesses seeking to optimize their digital operations can now leverage these advanced network APIs to improve security, scalability, and seamless connectivity.