Operators should fully support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and improve their API offerings if they are to better compete against the growing threat of over-the-top players, according to a senior executive at Cisco.

In a new video interview with Mobile World Live, Kit Beall, VP of Mobile Internet Architecture at the networking vendor, tackles the challenges facing mobile operators and offers advice on how they can best position themselves against innovative IP upstarts.

Beall identifies two major areas where operators can ensure they add value to their user base: “The first is to support multiple devices, which is really following on from the whole BYOD trend,” he comments, adding that operators also need “to make it easy for application developers to come onto their networks.”

Beall admits that embracing the developer community has not been a traditional focus for a network operator but claims Cisco is well placed to help its operator customers in this area. “The other thing is to actually make the APIs themselves rich and robust,” he notes, using the example of the iPhone and iPad as a business model that offers “a very compelling development environment.”

“This is all going to scale in multiple directions, both in the number of devices but also in the number of APIs and the number of applications that can be created on those networks,” notes Beall.

View the full video interview here.