Telecom giant Telefónica seeks to streamline core business processes using IBM Blockchain

Spanish telecom giant Telefónica is collaborating with tech giant IBM to implement blockchain technology to streamline core business processes.

By leveraging blockchain technology, Telefónica aims to address complex challenges in its services that register data and information from different sources regarding business and network processes. It said that applying the technology to end-to-end telco processes would help introduce “a new form of command and consent” into the flow of information, which enhance efficiency and trust.

In addition, the technology will also improve privacy and confidentiality by allowing participating members secure and authorized access to necessary details.

According to a press release dated November 14, the companies will initially focus on improving the reliability and transparency of information collected by different networks when routing international calls.

Using the IBM Blockchain Platform powered by the IBM Cloud, Telefónica will work to track in real time the certainty and traceability of each international call and its attributes (mainly origin, destination and duration) in a decentralized platform to which all the operators in the chain have permissioned access.

Ignacio Martín Santos, Managing Director for Telefónica Integrated Account in IBM, said that project aims to increase trust among the different partners in the communications ecosystem, avoiding the need for call data reconciliation and thus achieving high potential benefits like reduced risk, time-saving and cost removal.

“This project is one of our first initiatives to secure real benefits from the adoption of blockchain in our core business. We believe that the new paradigm of process decentralization that blockchain facilitates perfectly fits with the telecommunications industry and can help us to significantly improve the way we have been traditionally solving the integrations between partners, ”says Gonzalo Martín-Villa, Chief Innovation Officer of Telefónica.

Telefónica said the solution can be applied to many other services, building a trustworthy network of various stakeholders – operators, service providers, vendors, etc. – who are involved in delivering a digital service. The network would then be able to reach a consensus about veracity and traceability of the data pertaining to the usage of services generated and collected from multiple sources and systems in real-time.

Last year, a number of telecom carriers including TBCASoft, Sprint Corporation, and Far EasTone Telecommunications teamed up to form a blockchain consortium, called the “Carrier Blockchain Study Group” or CBSG. Other members include SoftBank, LG Uplus, KT Corporation, and UAE-based Etisalat Telecommunication Corporation, Axiata Group Berhad, PLDT, Turkcell, Viettel Telecom Corporation, and others.