Modernizing Telecom SMS API Management to Drive Efficiency and Growth

A leading telecom provider in the Philippines, serving nearly 57 million subscribers, faced a high volume of support tickets due to slow SMS delivery. Its Apigee API platform, which managed SMS traffic, was throttled by legacy infrastructure constraints, creating bottlenecks and operational challenges. Congestion among the core service APIs affected consumers, partners and developers relying on the provider’s SMS API. Because of the decline in system throughput, developers building time-sensitive SMS solutions faced severe performance issues: After an API call, SMS delivery took more than five hours. The telecom service provider sought Material’s expertise to address these challenges and modernize its systems.

Material’s strategic implementation led to a 10x increase in API gateway capacity, significantly improving scalability and performance. Support ticket volume dropped by 80%, freeing up internal teams for high-value initiatives. With the introduction of the bulk SMS API, SMS delivery times improved for time-sensitive messaging. Automated scaling capabilities lowered OPEX costs by eliminating the need for manual interventions.

Implementing a scalable and structured API strategy also enabled the telecom provider to overcome infrastructure limitations and provide identity, location, payment, digital and other 2.0 telco services, unlocking additional revenue streams.