In bid to offer Blockchain solutions that can be used in mobile number portability (MNP) and ‘Do Not Call’ (DNC) registries, International Business Machines (IBM) is looking ahead to work with India’s telecom firms.

“We have completed proof of concepts and pilots with all the major telecom providers and with Trai in this space,” Sriram Raghavan, Vice President of IBM Research explained to India local media.

IBM vice preside further said without mention names of telecom companies that, going into the New Year, his company will start to see blockchain solutions get rolled out.

This gives, Trai, as a regulator, more visibility and spot malfeasance quickly," he said. “Mobile number portability to is a multi-party process involving a minimum of two telecom providers where blockchain can play a role."

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and telecom providers have been working with tech firms such as IBM to know how blockchain could address issues of coordination among multiple parties with respect to DoNot Call registries and number portability. Everything from customer consent for the DNC service to whether the consent is respected is recorded on the blockchain, Raghavan said.

Trai had completed a review of the proof of concepts on the blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in February. After evaluating what was possible with DLT, the regulator came out with a set of regulations in May.

“We had a meeting (on Friday) and the telecommunication service providers are now in the process of aligning their vendors," said Tail official

The next step in this process is for the telecom service providers to select IT vendors and set up the systems in accordance with the Trai guidelines.

The companies have promised to roll out DLT-based systems in the next couple of months, the person said. The Do Not Call registry would be the first to move towards DLT.

Blockchain, first emerged as the system underpinning the popular cryptocurrency bitcoin, is a digitally distributed collection of records where every person or entity on the network has a copy of the ledger. All participants have to agree to make any change.