Download the related report – Blockchain: Where’s the value for telecoms? – for more examples of how leading CSPs are developing new blockchain solutions.Deutsche Telekom is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe and operates several subsidiaries worldwide. Much of the company’s blockchain work is conducted by its Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs) subsidiary, and in particular T-Lab’s dedicated Blockchain Group. The importance the company attaches to blockchain is reflected in the fact it has already negotiated tariffs with telecommunications providers, via smart contracts, to adjust roaming costs to customers’ needs and evaluated how blockchain can be used to secure networks against hackers.
Recently, Deutsche Telekom has worked on several innovative blockchain-based solutions. For example, in February it announced City Pass, an initiative to provide access to a range of municipal services via a single account. The data generated through City Pass cannot be manipulated, and transactions are settled between partners directly. Also, in June 2018 the company began testing a blocking procedure for stolen phones with its implementation partner Camelot Innovative Technologies Lab, and created a decentralized blocking list to enable the anonymization and distribution of blocked IMEI numbers.
Like many of its peers, Deutsche Telekom is active in a number of blockchain-based membership organizations too, sharing best practice and helping the technology to gain a firm footing. These include the global
Hyperledger community, which it joined in December 2018. As part of its extensive work with that community, T-Labs has prototyped a decentralized, transparent approach to settling and executing wholesale roaming agreements based on Hyperledger Fabric.
Next Identity Platform
Meanwhile, T-Mobile US has developed strong links with the open source community in this area. Says Erik Meijer, Board Area, Technology & Innovation, for Deutsche Telekom (and member of TM Forum’s Digital Ecosystems Advisory Board), “I’m really impressed with what our T-Mobile US colleagues are implementing with Hyperledger Sawtooth, creating the Next Identity Platform.
“Next Identity is an enterprise-grade blockchain application that facilitates decentralized decision making for our Team of Experts at the point of interaction with clients. Topping this off is our intensive collaboration with the global open source community. Being part of a large-scale ecosystem for open innovation is one of our main drivers for being actively involved at TM Forum – establishing intelligent operations for a ‘5G for all’ world.”
Since February, T-Labs has been a member of the Hedera Hashgraph Governing Council, whose Hedera Hashgraph platform provides a distributed public ledger which can be used to develop globally decentralized applications. In addition, T-Labs is building an ecosystem known as Hashstax, which aims to provide access to numerous blockchains through a single interface. The system provides software developers and IoT device manufacturers with access to decentralized features such as payment, identity and smart contracts.
“We have set up something with partners and they have done this on their own stack. They have built Hashstax, which is a blockchain-as-a-service application,” Meijer says.
In addition, Deutsche Telekom is working with other CSPs to develop solutions based on blockchain, and in February signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to accelerate its strategic partnership with South Korea’s SK Telecom. The partnership encompasses Blockchain Mobile ID intended to give users self-sovereign identities and protect their personal data.
“The traditional identity [interaction] now is a consumer of our services, but in the future, it will be a machine trying to consume functionality-as-a-service out of our cloud,” Meijer says. “We want to transfer out of legacy and into the future.”
