Yesterday, it was announced that telecoms firms Tata Communications, TI Sparkle, PCCW Global, and Colt are working with technology vendors Accedian, Amartus and Clear on a blockchain proof of concept (PoC) for on-demand services.
The PoC is to demonstrate blockchain’s ability to deliver on-demand services across multiple geographies while ensuring the immutability of data shared between the mobile service providers. The initiative is being run under the ongoing MEF 2019 event for carriers in California.
Technology providers Amartus and Clear are creating separate but interoperable blockchain networks. Accedian is involved in automating the assignment of service level agreement (SLA) violations and penalties.
In mobile communications, a big problem is managing services provided to a customer via multiple providers or intermediaries. Each party has to engage back-end resources to keep track of the shared services provided to a customer. The process gets even more complicated when the data does not match across service providers.
The PoC is focused on interoperability of networks to enable participants to have a secure and real-time view of the shared services rendered to a customer. The trial will also evaluate MEF’s Lifecycle Services Orchestration (LSO) standards such as LSO Sonata that enables industry collaboration.
The trial is significant as Tata, PCCW, Colt, Amartus and Clear are part of telecoms consortium Communications Blockchain Network (CBN), initiated by ITW Global Leaders’ Forum.
There is another telecoms consortium, Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG), with prominent members such as SoftBank, TBCASoft, Far EasTone, Sprint, LG U+, Axiata and MTN among others. CBSG has developed the DLT-based Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS), to optimize transaction records and clearing between different carriers.
Meanwhile, MEF19 has a separate blockchain PoC led by R3 and DCConnect. The objectives of the trial are similar to the one initiated by Clear, but with Corda being used for tracking SLA performance metrics and maintaining an immutable record of it.
Clear has been part of several trials conducted with Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Vodafone to streamline commercial roaming process between operators.
