Emerging Technologies MARKET REPORT
“It may be niche now – and it may remain niche in the future – but there will be on-going demand for
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Blockchain technology could help introduce higher levels of security to and
condence in supply chain transactions.
huge scope for opportunity.
“Already mobile operators
are out there oering a simple
ecient blockchain based
contract for mobile roaming
or interconnection. e
opportunity exists for CSPs
and providers to simplify
management systems, improve
identity management & fraud
prevention, secure and deploy
IoT and improve the accuracy
and eciency of billing
systems.”
blockchain experts and blockchain solutions”
Louisa Gregory, Chief of Staff at Colt Technology Services
What current business
applications exist?
e bulk of the current
activity sits in the CSP arena now
and most development seems to
be focussed around; Settlement
contracts between carriers
and mobile operators, Fraud
prevention & mobile payment.
Recent press announcements
include; AT&T’s decision to
accept BitPay as a payment
method for crypto holders to pay
their bills. Also, as an example
of a non-decentralised approach
Facebook has conrmed its
planning to launch its own
private blockchain under the
guise of ‘Globalcoin’. By utilising
their own private Blockchain
and currency they lose some
of Blockchains inherent user
benets but eectively retain all
of the control.”
Lee Norvall, non-exec
Technical Director at
professional services company
FreedomTECH, says that
Blockchain in telecoms can
facilitate asset management across
the entire business network.
“In simple terms, a shared
ledger can be accessed by
all involved in the supply of
communications, such as mobile
phones. ese could include
logistics records, supplier, CSP
records, regulators records,
partner carriers and contractor
records. Working to the core
shared ledger enables speed,
accuracy, compliancy, security
and transparency.”
Norvell believes this could
make us consider the Supply
Chain Blockchain scenario
where the relationships between
participants, suppliers, regulators,
partners, customers and even
competitors in a CSP’s business
network have become more
complex.
“ese business networks
cross geographic and regulatory
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boundaries. Value is generated
by the ow of products and
services across business networks
in transactions and contracts.
e business network operates
by transferring assets between
parties. Anything that is capable
of being owned or controlled to
produce value is an asset.
ere are two fundamental
types of assets: tangible (a
mobile phone, for example) and
intangible (a service agreement,
for example). A shared ledger is
key to successfully managing
assets across the network.
e key to a successful
Blockchain in any given market
is therefore collaboration across
each member/technology
provider all subscribing to and
working o a single or collection
of ledgers.”
How can resellers get involved
and what are the additional
skill sets needed?
“ere are courses resellers
can attend to become certied
blockchain professionals, which
acts to both reassure clients and
to help resellers dierentiate
their businesses from
competitors,” says Gregory.
“In terms of the training and
skills needed to be procient
in blockchain, of course a
technology background will
be useful as many subsequent
blockchain discussions with
customers will centre on how
it complements new or existing
technology.
Being able to learn and
adapt quickly will be key too,
especially during these early days
of the technology’s evolution.
ose who are already skilled
in the elds of software and
systems development - or are
familiar with data analytics -
may already have transferable
skills that are relevant to
blockchain. Also, when it comes
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platform that can settle voice
transactions between multiple
carriers in minutes, rather
than hours. While that’s not
necessarily an SMB application,
it does show the versatility and
scalability of the technology
and the value it can add where
transactions conducted in realtime
are concerned.”
Chris Money at Cloudstreet
says that if you look at the ways
the blockchain attributes can be
applied to our market, there is
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