IBM wants to prepare Indian telecommunications providers for the fourth industrial revolution. The responsible regulatory authority TRAI has also recognized the potential of blockchain and DLT.
While crypto currencies have a hard time in India, the government around Prime Minister Narendra is very sympathetic to blockchain technology. Modi not only wants to push the cooperation of the BRICS states in this area; in addition, the World Economic Forum in Maharastra opened a „Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution“ in October.
Indian interest in distributed ledger technology has also brought technology giant IBM onto the scene. The US company is currently working with Indian telecommunications companies on blockchain solutions for the country’s huge telecommunications market.
This Bitcoin code was reported by The Economic Times on 12 December
„We have completed the proof of concept and pilot Bitcoin code projects with all major telecommunications providers and with TRAI in this Bitcoin code area, Sriram Raghavan, CTO of IBM India and South Asia, told the Economic Times. TRAI, or The Regulatory Authority of India, is the Indian regulatory authority for telecommunications. It met with the companies involved on 10 December to discuss the next steps. A TRAI official told the Economic Times:
„[…] Telecommunications service providers are now in the process of updating their providers.“
First Step of the Bitcoin code
Both IBM and TRAI have so far been silent about which Bitcoin code providers are meant by this. In the coming months the first Bitcoin code and/or DLT products are to come on the market. First, the national Do-Not-Call database is to be converted to DLT. Customers who do not want to receive calls from telemarketers can register their telephone numbers there.
One thing is certain: the telecom companies of the subcontinent can certainly tolerate a fresh cell cure. Despite its immense size, the Indian mobile phone market is not considered to be very lucrative. The reason for this is the low prices. However, there is still enormous growth potential in the area of network coverage. 70 percent of India’s population lives in rural regions. Only 58 percent of the country is covered by the telecommunications network.