IBM-Telefonica Partner on International Calls Blockchain
Technology giant IBM has teamed up with the Spanish telecom company Telefonica to apply Blockchain technology for international call traffic on mobile phones.
Telefonica, the 7th biggest telecommunications company in the world based on market capitalization, with a market value of $51 billion, has more than 373 million customers and operations in 17 different companies.
Tracking Data on Blockchain
The partnership between IBM and Telefonica focuses on streamlining some of the telecom giant’s business processes. The aim is to address various challenges being faced in the telecom field, including the transparency as well as reliability of the information that is registered from various networks when international calls are being routed.
The idea is that Telefonica will use IBM’s Blockchain Platform to track data related to international calls, such as the origin of the call, its destination and the duration of the call.
The platform will also be used to build a network of peers that will be comprised of operators, vendors, service providers as well as other related parties. All participants in this network will be able to access the Blockchain platform.
With this Blockchain platform, Telefonica will be able to identify fraudulent activities on its network. The company will also be able to manage issues such as discrepancies in information, dispute resolution and losses caused due to uncollected revenues.
According to the Chief Innovation Officer of Telefonica, Gonzalo Martin-Villa, using the Blockchain would allow operators to generate fresh levels of confidence in the internet. That confidence will be based on the data itself, rather than the parties that generate that data and the transactions.
IBM also confirmed the partnership with Telefonica in a separate announcement. The technology behemoth stated that the two companies were working together in the development of a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) that will be based on IBM’s Blockchain technology. The focus of this project will be to help solve one of the biggest challenges that communication service providers face – the management of international call traffic on mobile phones.
Blockchain in Telecom
Telefonica is not the only telecom company looking at using Blockchain technology for innovative solutions.
Last month, Viettel Group, Vietnam’s biggest telecom operator, set a goal that it was going to become the country’s leading Blockchain tech provider in the next 5 years. As a part of its race to the top, the company has already developed a Blockchain-based solution for improving file management in the healthcare industry.
LG UPlus, LG’s mobile carrier in South Korea, is also launching an inter-carrier international payment service using Blockchain. Users of one telecom carrier will be able to complete international payment transactions using another carriers payment networks thanks to Blockchain technology.