Winning Catalyst unleashes blockchain for the greater telco good

Bitcoin may have put blockchain on the map, but a new TM Forum Catalyst proof of concept is setting out to prove that the distributed ledger technology can be more than just infrastructure for cryptocurrency – and that we’ve only scratched the surface of its potential. “Blockchain is a fascinating innovation with the potential to change technical, social and economic processes,” said Atul Purohit, Principal Enterprise Architect – Service Management at Vodafone, a champion of the project. Outside of fintech, there has been little exploration of the use cases for blockchain, but communications service providers (CSPs) are beginning to consider how they can use it. Enter Blockchain Unleashed. The Catalyst, which was demonstrated recently at Digital Transformation World, is exploring how CSPs can use blockchain to cut as many ‘middlemen’ as possible and help with day-to-day operations.

Who’s involved?

“This is a mega Catalyst on blockchain with 14 companies onboard and one of the largest catalyst teams that we have ever seen,” said Vincent Seet, Head of Enterprise Architecture at Globe Telecom, another champion of the Catalyst. “This goes to show the high level of interest in our industry to have a litmus test on the maturity of blockchain technology to disrupt solutions.” As well as Globe Telecom and Vodafone, champions of the project include British Telecom, KDDI, Optus, Orange, Singtel, Telefónica and Ultrafast Fibre. Globe Telecom is managing the project, which includes Deloitte, IBM, Infosys and Openet as participants. Each of the companies involved focused on one or more of five use cases: The following table shows the role of each participant, and the use cases are described in detail below.

1. Elimination of call detail records (CDRs) for billing, settlement and fraud detection.
2. Digital identity as a service
3. Monitoring of service level agreements (SLAs)
4. Prevention of phone theft
5. Mobile number portability

Getting there

The team used TM Forum Open APIs (details of which we will cover in a separate article) and Curate FX to manage the ecosystem of the project including to: Indeed, the project won the Outstanding Catalyst award for CurateFx ecosystem design at Digital Transformation World. “Few people really understand [blockchain], and in particular, few people understand the really good use cases and the poor use cases,” said Dr. Lester Thomas, Chief IT Systems Architect, Vodafone Group, in presenting the award. “This team unleashed really powerful use cases that are very, very relevant for the digital telco ecosystem.”

• Map the stakeholders’ problem statement
• Illustrate the various blockchain ecosystems
• Visualize the impact of the Catalyst
• Map how the project uses TM Forum’s Business Process Framework (eTOM) – which gave them a common structure for mapping their processes
• Map how the project uses TM Forum’s Information Framework (SID) – which enabled them to use a common language

Use Case 1 – Eliminating CDRs for billing, settlement and fraud detection

This use case explored how blockchain can end the need for call detail records (CDRs), instead processing transactions in real time to improve fraud detection and reduce the time it takes for settlement. The problem: CDRs are inefficient and prone to fraud. CSPs must coordinate and rely on partners’ networks and a data clearinghouse to collect, process and transmit call and data records to them. Fraudulent users who are roaming can tap CSPs’ resources via partners’ networks known as visited public mobile networks (VPMNs). The VPMN charges the home public mobile network (HPMN – the original provider) but never collects the subscriber’s money because they are fraudulent. Also, detecting fraud is difficult because of the length of time it takes both networks to exchange data via the clearinghouse. The solution: The Catalyst team generated pre-prepared user interactions so that demonstration attendees could see CDR-related events enter the blockchain. They could also see the total bill or settlement amount and/or any fraudulent transactions that entered the blockchain. The idea was to show how CDR transaction details and roaming transaction details can be stored in the blockchain so that there is complete transparency to internal applications. Here’s an sample customer journey involving fraud:

Use case 2 – Identity management

This use case explored how a single customer ID can be digitalized and used to holistically identify and authenticate customers and the services/digital apps they are using. The problem: Today’s voracious consumers of digital services are having to enter their password time and time again. Not only is this frustrating and time-consuming for consumers, there is also potential for duplicate information and security risks. The solution: The team created a blockchain ID management process that includes two roles, ID creator and ID validator. ID creator – The customer creates an ID profile on the blockchain platform associated with their data currently with the service provider. ID validator – This function validates supporting ID documents in two ways: During the demonstration, attendees were able to create an identity and then log in and see their profile page with their basic personal identity information. The user could share the information with whomever they want and select what information they do and don’t share. On a parallel screen, these attendees could see the transactions entering the blockchain and the subsequent activity. The blockchain identity management solution works across various industries/customers (see the graphic below) and provides telcos with a whole new revenue stream through an identity-as-a-service offering.

• The customer manages their own ID profile and supporting documents.
• Customer information and documents are stored outside the blockchain and only a reference is stored in the blockchain.
• The vendor requests that the customer provide their ID and documents to the vendor with the consent of the data use.
• The customer approaches the vendor and provides their ID and supporting documents. No consent is required as documents are directly shared with the vendor.

Use Case 3 – SLA Monitoring

This use case looks at using smart contracts to enforcing SLAs. The problem: Enforcing SLAs is laborious and requires a lot of human intervention. The manual processes result in errors and delays in processing SLAs. Any disputes between vendors are usually due to their different interpretation of SLAs. What’s more, data is not validated in real time, and there is no clear view of the data, so no transparency. The solution: Smart contracts can be encoded with the terms of SLAs, and the SLAs can be enforced automatically. The involvement of blockchain means the following:

• Smart contracts on the blockchain will manage SLA data and KPI rules between provider and vendor.
• When an incident ticket is raised, the smart contract will trigger the SLA initiation in the system.
• The smart contract can further send real-time notification to involved parties.
• Once the service is completed, another trigger will update the status on the blockchain and a smart contract will decide the SLA status as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
• Based on the SLA status, the contract will calculate charges or incentives, and a payment is issued accordingly.

Use Case 4 – Reducing mobile phone thefts

This use case looks at creating a multi-operator blockchain to manage blacklists of devices reported stolen. The problem: The processes involved in blocking a device are manual and thus time-consuming and can only be conducted by mobile phone owner’s operator. The project: Using blockchain means a reported stolen device can be blocked immediately. Multiple agents connected to the blockchain can report stolen devices for blocking, or if they have authorization, they can block the device themselves. Using a smart contract means third parties are informed of any change of status of a device instantly. The operator can also create a parallel blockchain of devices not stolen, to manage ‘SIM copy scenarios’, which reduces fraud and improves user perception. The diagram below shows the project’s designed sequence of events once a stolen phone is reported:

Use Case 5 – Mobile number portability

This use case improves how operators handle porting mobile numbers for subscribers who wish to change providers. The problem: If a customer wants to switch their phone number to another provider, the process takes at least a day because of the backend processes involving the original service provider, the new service provider and the central MNP database provider, which is usually authorized by the local telecom regulator. The solution: Use blockchain to port numbers in real time.

• Telecom operators in a given country put subscriber data along with device information on the blockchain.
• The device’s unique ID, its IMEI, is mapped to a user, and a hash of this data is uploaded to the blockchain.
• If the device is stolen, the subscriber or telecom operator uploads the first investigation report (FIR) on the blockchain.
• When a call is made from this device in other country, the local telecom operator picks up the unique ID of the device and checks the details on the blockchain.
• If a matching FIR is found, the local operator blocks the device and updates its location on the blockchain.
• An alert is sent to the original operator via the blockchain.

What’s next?

With the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now in full effect, the team would like to explore uses of blockchain in the context of GDPR and privacy. In the video below, you can hear more about the project from Kevin John Lee, Enterprise Architecture Associate, Globe Telecom: