The global market for blockchain is about $500 million and it is expected to grow beyond $7 billion in the next three to four years IBM

All Indian telcos need to participate together to deploy the distributed ledger technology Rajan Mathews, COAI

More than a billion mobile phone users can expect a significant respite from pesky calls and messages, as Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm start to roll out blockchain-based technology through partnerships with Tanla Solutions and Tech Mahindra, respectively, to tackle spammers. Bharti Airtel , with more than 325 million users, has already made a similar deployment in a tie-up with IBM.Analysts said the ongoing deployment could be the world's largest use case for a blockchain solution in the telecom space, with nearly a billion subscribers who would get impacted by the TRAI regulation.The deployment is being done in line with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s regulations, which will come into effect by the month end, to protect mobile phone subscribers from unsolicited commercial communication, or spam calls and messages. Vodafone Idea has some 395 million users, while Jio has about 307 million, as per TRAI data.The current deployment of the blockchain technology across telcos will empower individual mobile users to set and manage their communication preferences and consents.Vodafone Idea has signed a multi-year contract with Tanla Solutions to deploy the technology, along with a regulatory sandbox and production platform. “The deployment is underway and it will help in arresting spam and fraud-related commercial communications for Vodafone Idea subscribers,” a Tanla spokesperson told ET. The person said Tanla was also helping Airtel for the implementation of the network, though IBM remains the bigger vendor for the technology.A Vodafone Idea spokesperson said the company supported Trai’s initiative and was working with “new-age technologies to deliver simple (and) delightful experiences with meaningful innovations”.Jio is working with Tech Mahindra to deploy the technology. A person aware of the development said the technology was jointly developed, and Tech Mahindra would manage it for the telecom company.Jio and Tech Mahindra didn’t respond to ET’s queries.Blockchain, which came into prominence with the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is a digital ledger for storing data including financial transactions. The technology decentralises information, which is held in a shared database that can be accessed in real time. Currently, the global market for blockchain is about $500 million and it is expected to grow beyond $7 billion in the next three to four years, as per recent estimates by IBM.Rajan Mathews, director-general at the Cellular Operators Association of India, said all telecom operators would have to participate together to deploy the distributed ledger technology and that the association had been working to have everyone in the ecosystem on board. “Everybody that is in the ecosystem has to participate, including (state-run) BSNL,” he said, adding: “Telcos have to have a standard operating procedure that has now been put in place.”Last July, TRAI had overhauled rules to check spam calls and messages, directing telcos to use blockchain to reduce unwanted communications, and mandated subscriber consent to receive telemarketing messages. It also fixed penalties of between Rs 1,000 and Rs 50 lakh per violation in a month on telcos that don’t comply with the guidelines to check such calls and messages.“Telcos are working concurrently and collaboratively to deploy this solution across a multi cloud environment. On completion of the deployment, the solution will be rolled out to the entire pan-India subscriber population of these telcos,” Vishal Awal, vice president – telecom (global business services), IBM India/South Asia, said. “The collaboration is required to ensure the solution meets a consistent development, security and architecture standards.”Awal said that the blockchain network deployment at Airtel, for instance, will shape up to be the world’s first "Multi Cloud Telecom Blockchain Network" – a significant landmark that clearly highlights the modularity and architectural flexibility of blockchain fabric to span across varied infrastructures and organizations.Mathews said that the deployment is an ongoing process, and the stakeholders, including vendors and telcos have been working with the regulator, Trai. “We have been explaining challenges that we are running into. There have been understanding. They want to us to be able to iron out some issues that have come up. We are on our way of implementing it,” Mathew added.Indian telecom operators, Mathews said, are meeting deadlines set by the regulator, and Trai is informed accordingly as and when telcos face issues. “We are progressing well.”The SLT or Blockchain based fabric will enable telcos to have a clear and transparent information related to ecosystem players like soliciting entities, message aggregators, subscriber consent data and lifecycle event dates among others. Any complaints and messages received can be resolved in a very short time as compared to a very cumbersome and largely opaque current state process.Blockchain, which came into prominence with the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is a digital ledger for storing data including financial transactions. The technology decentralises information, which is held in a shared database that can be accessed in real time.The blockchain opportunity within the telecom domain is poised to grow exponentially across a wide range of regulatory or compliance and business use cases. Analysts believe that telecom operators can further leverage the technology for Mobile Number Portability, interconnect settlements, supply chain streamlining and content partner settlements among others.They said that the blockchain-based platform play will allow multiple use cases across business and compliance domains that can do the job either more cost effectively or via delivering better customer experience or via creating sources of revenues or a combination of all of those. The adoption will impact telcos' all vital business parameters going forward.IBM's Awal said that "telco being a sector of sectors, lies at the epicenter of virtually all other sectors." The need for "Intelligent connectivity in a hyper-connected world" puts telcos "front and center" in the evolving business networks. telcos are pivotal to successful adoption of blockchain and other disruptive technologies. This stems from the fact that the average subscribers is adopting new services, information and new technology today predominantly via their smart phones."Telcos typically are among the most trusted organizations for handling personal data and securing privacy. As demand for trust intensifies, blockchain based business networks can be the springboard for seamless telco ecosystem involvement," Awal said.