Four telecom giants team up to trial blockchain

Telecom giants CBCcom, PCCW Global, Sparkle and Tata Communications are teaming up for a Proof of Concept (PoC) aimed at demonstrating fast commercial interactions and settlements using blockchain technologies.

The PoC will be conducted in collaboration with technology vendors Clear Blockchain Technologies and Cataworx. It will be demonstrated between the 29th and 31st of October 2018 at the MEF18 global networking event (MEF18event.com) in Los Angeles, California.

In an online post, Clear Blockchain Technologies noted the growing demand for flexible, high-quality bandwidth and a guaranteed quality of service. Say, if a user wants to participate in a high-quality video call, he/she would want to pay for high-bandwidth services only when they need it as they are expensive. The same is true for VR/AR, autonomous cars, IoT, and more.

However, current carriers and mobile operators cannot provide these “on-demand” services because their back-office systems currently do not support automated multi-product inter-carrier financial transactions and operations with multiple carriers. This is where blockchain technology comes into the picture.

“By creating a blockchain-based commercial iterations, billing & settlement layer, Clear enables carriers to automatically discover, quote, deliver and settle multi-product, multi-party services, eliminating reliance on a centralized intermediating party,” it said.

According to the official release, the Bandwidth-on-Demand PoC will demonstrate the power and viability of a synchronized and decentralized global supply chain for inter-carrier bandwidth-on-demand services.

In the PoC:

• Cataworx will demonstrate LSO Sonata inter-carrier quoting solutions and LSO Cantata intent interfaces, enabling customers to rapidly discover and order services that span across multiple carrier networks.
• Clear will demonstrate LSO Sonata blockchain-based billing and settlement enabling carriers to bill for guaranteed network capacity on-demand, thus unlocking new revenue streams based on existing network infrastructure.
• Service providers CBCcom, PCCW Global, Sparkle and Tata Communications represent a multi-carrier interconnected network environment.

“Being involved in this latest proof-of-concept not only leverages our partner and technology ecosystem, it is also a step forward in demonstrating the potential value that blockchain can deliver by improving the ways in which we interoperate in the context of next generation services and ultimately the end-user experience,” Matthew Ma, Vice President, Global Technology, Network and Operations Group, Tata Communications said.