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Electroneum’s (ETN) new partnership with a Thai-based mobile phone operator will rapidly enable the network to expand into the country, the project’s CEO hopes.

Last night, Electroneum announced a new agreement with Thailand’s One Development, which provides the network service infrastructure and coverage for mobile phones. The partnership will explore options for Electroneum to be used as an end-to-end cryptocurrency solution. This might even include using ETN tokens to pay for data usage.

Electroneum is a payments system that can be accessed from an app. Users can send and receive crypto transactions, lowering the barrier to entry in the developing world where mobile devices are already used as payments tools. It introduced new KYC requirements earlier this year, which it claimed made it a trustworthy method to buy age-restricted items, like alcohol, without needing to show other proofs of identity.

Electroneum isn’t the only one implementing cryptocurrency payments into mobile devices. Crypto Briefing reported earlier this week that a company selling phones pre-loaded with Dash (DASH) was doing extremely well in the Latin American market, and in Venezuela particularly.

Electroneum partnership

One Development is one of Thailand’s leading mobile virtual network enablers (MVNE) as well as its first mobile virtual network aggregator (MVNA). It provides the foundational network infrastructure and data services to companies which can then sell it on under their own brands, such as phone companies.

Richard Ells, Electroneum’s CEO and founder, believes the new partnership will be a “major step” in providing more crypto-based services to Thailand. He has previously highlighted that Electroneum’s success depended on partnerships with network operators who can encourage greater ETN adoption.

Ells said:

Our developing partnership with One Development is an important example of how the ETN model drives self-funding, financial inclusion and inclusivity; a powerful connection between the unbanked and industrialized worlds that enable populations to work out of poverty.

Allan Rasmussen, the CEO of One Development, added that ETN would provide significant benefits across the spectrum in a legal and secure manner.

“With Electroneum, we firmly believe we found a partner that ticks the right boxes when it comes to benefiting all stakeholders in our ecosystem,” he said. “With ETN’s introduction of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML), the regulatory compliance box has also been ticked, providing a trusted environment, and we now look forward to working with Electroneum on the promotion of ETN.”

The author is invested in digital assets, but none mentioned in this article.

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