More wholesale operators join blockchain trial

More operators have joined the joint blockchain trial being conducted by HKT’s PCCW Global and telecoms and data center services company Colt.

Members of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), including Australia’s Telstra, Hong Kong based HGC Global Communications, Spain’s Telefónica and the UK’s BT, are now getting involved in the initiative.

The trial involves the use of blockchain to automate the inter-carrier settlement of wholesale international services.

During a proof of concept trial in March, conducted with blockchain startup Clear, the companies demonstrated how blockchain can reduce the labor-intensive process of inter-carrier settlements from hours to mere minutes.

Now the solution developed for the trial is being utilized in real time, with PCCW Global and Colt now using live data to settle and verify traffic, PCCW Global said.

The companies aim to expand the bilateral testing to encompass multilateral relationships within the wholesale telecommunications industry.

“We are very pleased that this PoC is expanding to include more carriers. A lot of the conversations at the GLF have been around how innovative technologies such as blockchain can be used to improve the overall efficiency of the industry,” PCCW Global CEO and GLF chairman Marc Halbfinger said.

“With the PoC expanding to include more carriers, it is clear that the industry is seeing the benefit of becoming further aligned. Industry cooperation in this area will be incredibly powerful for the whole sector.”