The UK to Adopt Blockchain Technology for Landline Management
The agency in charge of telecommunications service provider in the UK, Ofcom, (Office of Communications) has been awarded a grant of £700,000 to explore the use of blockchain technology for management of landline numbers.
OfCom to Adopt Blockchain Technology
With this grant, the Office of Communications will be looking into all avenue through which blockchain technology can be used for the better management of landline numbers in the country.
As a government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications, and postal industries, OfCom is charged with ensuring that all aspect of the industry is up to standards and no one is cutting a corner. This is why the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has decided to award OfCom this huge grant.
Big Plans
The regulatory authority has made its plans on how it intends on going about doing this research known. OfCom declared that it will be inviting specialist and experts with connections to the blockchain industry to work toward achieving this goal.
This was confirmed in a statement from the CTO of the company, Mansoor Hanif. He stated that:
“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. And we’ll expand our research into other areas where innovative technologies such as blockchain could be applied to benefit consumers.”
A Report has also shown that Ofcom manages about 1billion landline numbers, which are either in use or reserved for future allocation. Adoption of blockchain technology by Ofcom will make it possible to maintain all these landline numbers as digital assets.
Benefits of the Adoption
Currently, OfCom makes use of the traditional system of recording which involves allocating blocks of mobile numbers to operators who then manage them.
The adoption of blockchain technology by the regulator will make moving from an analog-based traditional infrastructure to a VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) easy and straightforward. OfCom stands to benefit from this move in so many ways such as better tracking, lower cost of operation, better management of service, faster execution and improved customer experience.
