Despite the harsh ecosystem for cryptocurrencies in India, the country seems to prefer blockchain, the technology that powers virtual currencies.
According to a recent report from local news outlet The Economic Times, the Indian Telecommunication industry could adopt the blockchain solutions to enhance its mobile services such as Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and Do Not Call (DNC) registries within the country.
This development will be piloted by International Business Machines (IBM), a multinational computer manufacturing company with headquarters in Armonk, New York.
Sriram Raghavan, the Vice President of IBM Research, noted that they had completed proof of concepts and pilots with some Indian telecom service providers and they hope to introduce blockchain solutions in 2019.
“We have completed proof of concepts and pilots with all the major telecom providers and with Trai in this space. We anticipate that going into the New Year, we’ll start to see blockchain solutions getting rolled out,” the VP stated without naming the providers.
The blockchain solutions will be used to record and store customer’s data ranging from their consent for the DNC to cases where the consent is respected. The data will, in turn, help the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to achieve more transparency.
The Trai has been working together with telecom companies and tech firms like IBM how the blockchain could be used to improve their services within the country.
Back in May, the telecom authorities formulated a regulatory framework for blockchain after completing a review of the proof on concepts on the DLT in February. According to the Trai guidelines, telecom providers are required to align with IT vendors to set up a “synconstems.”
An unnamed Trai official revealed, after a meeting on Monday, that the telecom companies are currently selecting their vendors, and the blockchain-based systems will be rolled out within the next few months.
However, the solutions will not be built on a public blockchain network. Instead, DNC registries will be stored on the private blockchain networks designed by IBM.
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