DLT’s NOT in the BSS!

FINtech, INSURtech, REGtech, MEDtech and PEERtech, there is no shortage of collaboration in the emergent Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technologies(DLT), Iot, 5G and Cloud worlds. What about in the Telecommunications World?

In a previous BLOG (DLT’s in the BSS PDQ?) we had suggested that Telecommunications Service Providers (carriers) deploy Blockchains or Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT’s) within their Billing Systems. “Inside a carrier” may not be the best place best place to “entrust” such a block chain. Consider our past experiences:

• A Partner Company “Air” was accelerated by a FINtech group that presented our product-set to a number of Banks. Although interested, Banks are very hesitant to such change.

• After discussions with a number of carriers about the Carrier-BSS/Blockchain concept, the same is true of any changes to their backoffice/billing systems.

Clearly the Banks “fear of change” towards Blockchain is analogous to the Carriers reticence to change their consolidation & billing engines. The denial for back-office-change include such reasons as:

• Complexity of current consolidation & billing practices

• Exposure of billing mismanagement & poor business constructs (rationale for TEM)

• Margin-concealing practices like Value-based Contracts

• Fundamental telecoms technology trending…

• a. 5G & cloud-based “always-connected” communications (no more “fat minutes on the network”)

• b. IoT infrastructures and their billing

Blockchains are “intranet-based infrastructures” by nature (similar to LANs/WANs &/or ERP systems, they function w/in a specific domain (some cases, like Bitcoin, those domains are global)). As stated in an interesting, Peertech blog, Blockchains are “an “enabling infrastructure template” that requires a plethora of Applications, Processes, Solutions and layered-services to drive those templates.” .

What if we set up an “intranet” outside of the Telcos domain… with the TEM companies… or by social groups (like Lemonade, the peer-to-peer insurance-sharing innovation)…or even Users themselves…

TEMteam is actually working on enabling Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT’s) or blockchain from the “CUSTOMER-side” (or the TEM-side) with a wireless Application that all of the users would have to “drive out the mistrust in the operators” with regards to call logs/activities. TEMteam is currently in discussion with Saaswedo and their product Datalert which closely aligns on the Data-side of an “extranet domain”. Of course, “many roads lead to Rome”.

Anyone (TEM company or Telecom Operator or Start-up/Social Group) interested in strategizing, developing and integrating this idea is welcome to contact us to explore and drive this initiative.