Download the related report Blockchain: Where’s the value for telecoms? for further details guidance on how, when and where to deploy this exciting new capability.It is essential that communications service providers (CSPs) work collaboratively while looking beyond obvious solutions if they are going to reap the full, potentially huge benefits of distributed-ledger technology. The following advice is drawn from the hard-won experience of blockchain pioneers.
Collaborate and share information
Collaboration with other companies, across sectors, helps drive the adoption of new technology for the benefit of all. Multi-carrier collaborations such as the Mobile Authentication Taskforce, the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium, ETSI’s Permissioned Distributed Ledgers group and the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF) are all helping to share knowledge and best practice, while establishing new standards.
“It’s important that carriers join together and apply the different use cases that others are working on internally,” states Telefónica’s Enrique Wong Lam.
For Globe Telecom’s Vincent Seet, the high costs associated with developing blockchain services are another reason for carriers to work together: “It’s important to encourage a co-creation mentality among CSPs so that we share the investment,” he states.
TM Forum is playing its part too, bringing carriers and other organizations together to demonstrate blockchain’s potential for disruption and value.
According to Deutsche Telekom’s Erik Meijer, “If you try to tackle blockchain alone, you are setting yourself up for failure. The innovation is moving so fast, and it’s hard to know what you don’t know. So being part of a community like TM Forum is important.”
Choose unobvious partners
CSPs should work with a range of companies, not just the obvious ones. It’s a good idea to forge links with companies with specialist blockchain knowledge. AT&T and Telefónica, for example, have sought to benefit from IBM and Microsoft’s extensive experience, although Vodafone believes that, given blockchain’s infancy, it may be too soon to commit to a single partner.
It’s also important to seek out smaller, and potentially more innovative, companies for collaboration. Telefónica, for example, is working with Rivetz, a start-up dedicated to endpoint security within anonymous blockchain transactions.
Similarly, Colt and other members of the ITW GLF are collaborating with blockchain start-up, Clear, in an effort to settle voice transactions between multiple carriers in minutes rather than hours.
Explore a range of use cases
In addition to critical processes such as settlement and identity management, blockchain can play a role in many emerging CSP use cases. New revenue opportunities often come out of leftfield, so carriers should be open to the many new avenues blockchain enables. For instance, AT&T is looking to use the technology for storing data about online transactions, while Deutsche Telekom has used blockchain to provide access to a range of municipal services via a single account, and Globe Telecom has used it as the basis for a cross-border money transfer service.
Above all, it’s important to focus on innovation. According to Meijer, “It’s important to play around with [blockchain]; TM Forum’s sandbox approach is very important.”
Be selective
While blockchain can be highly useful in many areas of a CSP’s business, it won’t improve all of them. Telefónica’s Wong Lam warns against trying to deploy blockchain where it does not bring sufficient value.
“The main thing we have learned is that blockchain cannot be applied to every area of the business. You need to be selective, as otherwise you will have a lot of innovation, but only a few of the use cases will be worthwhile,” he says.
Vodafone’s approach is to explore many ideas, assess the value of each, then proceed only when there is a clear business case with measurable key performance indicators.
