Global Blockchain Network Aims to Smooth Settlements Between Telco Giants

Some of the world’s top communications carriers — including A1 Telekom Austria, China Telecom Global, Deutsche Telekom, IDT, PCCW Global, Orange, Telstraveral — have committed to supporting a new blockchain ecosystem designed to improve inter-service settlement processes with automation and improved security.

See also: New Commodity Platform Powered by Blockchain, IoT

The ITW Global Leaders Forum (GLF) and CSG will collaborate to create the Communications Blockchain Network (CBN), a unified blockchain ecosystem to facilitate rapid and cost-efficient wholesale settlement between carriers and their partners who deliver diverse services to their customers.

“CSG is excited to partner with the ITW GLF to create a unified blockchain ecosystem,” says Finn Kornbo, director of product management, CSG. “The adoption of blockchain technology helps carriers reduce costs, while enhancing revenue growth by supporting the launch of new and innovated services brought about by 5G, IoT and other industry advancements.”

The company says blockchain can streamline a variety of processes including carrier agreement and settlement processes. Improving these processes’ speeds and ease reduces the time needed to put contracts in place. Faster payments eliminate the need for collections.

Collaborative Governance

A group of carriers and technology providers will govern the CBN platform. Amartus, Clear Blockchain Technologies, ConsenSys, CSG, Difitek, IBM, Internet Mobile Communications, Orbs, R3, Subex, Syniverse, and TOMIA have confirmed their support and intention to participate in its development.

This collaborative industry-wide governance framework, together with CBN, will help service proivders avoid fragmentation and accelerate adoption of automated settlement applications. It will also support the development of open-source standards and APIs that enable service-provider interoperability of blockchain-enabled services.

“When we set out along this journey, it was our goal to launch a platform that would enable multi-dimensional automation for the betterment of the industry,” says PCCW CEO and GLF Chairman Marc Halbfinger, in a prepared statement. “Now we are embarking on the next stage of this process by creating a truly open platform that will facilitate settlement among every ICT service provider, including carriers and cloud providers for all forms of ICT traffic.”