- The U.K’s Office of communications has been given a grant by the BEIS.
- Aim to carry out research about the use of the DLT in managing landline numbers.
Blockchain technology in the U.K has been given a boost by a grant given by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
According to the official announcement, the grant was given to the United Kingdom (U.K.) Office of Communications (Ofcom) and was to the tune of $916,000.
The grant in question is to help the Department find a way to manage landline phones numbers using blockchain.
Supported by 46 agencies and public bodies, BEIS was created two years ago to support innovations in the sectors of science, energy, business, and industrial strategy.
Testing, Testing
To properly manage the landline numbers, the department intends to invite industry members to test their system, eventually managing millions of landline numbers on the blockchain network.
“We issue blocks of these numbers to telecoms operators, who manage the numbers and movement (porting) of them into and out of their control,” the statement reads.
This is, however, not the department’s first attempt at creating a centralized network for the management of landline numbers.
Previous efforts were unsuccessful due to high costs and issues with collaboration.
Blockchain successfully gets around these barriers by being very easy to use by multiple parties and also by being a relatively cheap technology.
This, along with the ability of blockchain to help track and prevent malicious calls and fraud, make it a viable option for the department. There are also plans to explore how blockchain can be used in other communication areas to benefit consumers.
“We will be working with industry to explore how blockchain could make it quicker and easier for landline customers to switch providers while keeping their number — as well as reducing nuisance calls.” Said Mansoor Hanif, Of com Chief Technology Officer.
All Around the World
This is hardly the first time a country is making use of the blockchain technology to manage their telecommunications.
The three biggest telecommunications companies in China collectively launched a blockchain research group to look into building a reliable blockchain system that could be applied in their industry.
In Korea, its biggest telecommunications firm, KT, launched a blockchain-powered network. This was done by integrating a blockchain layer over their existing network systems.
