Telefonica announced BlueVia, a new developer initiative which it said “facilitates access to Telefonica network capabilities via new web-based APIs and to Telefonica’s main asset, our customer base.” Currently, four of Telefonica’s national operators are involved in the project – Movistar Argentina, Movistar Mexico, Movistar Spain and O2 UK, representing more than 80 million customers. The APIs available as part of BlueVia enable apps to send and receive SMS messages, include mobile advertising and access user context information, although not all are available in all markets at launch.

BlueVia is in a “closed beta” stage, with “only a few hundred developers” able to register to use the APIs and submit apps. The intention is to progress toward an “open beta,” although it has not stated the timeframe for this. In addition, only Movistar Argentina and Movistar Spain currently have their own app stores to support the submission of BlueVia apps. Telefonica said that it will develop the store through “periodical releases” which will add new APIs, stores and operating companies.

The aim is for the APIs to be “low friction, plug-and-play,” to reduce the risk to developers, being based on a number of existing web technologies. A number of different revenue share models are supported: developers receive 70 percent of app sales and subscription payments, 50 percent of advertising revenue, 20 percent of user-originated SMS traffic and 10 percent of network-originated SMS income, and the various income streams can be mixed to meet specific developer requirements.

BlueVia also encompasses a number of developer support activities, including a test environment and SDKs.