The GSMA announced at MWC in Barcelona the commercial readiness of the 'GSMA eBusiness Network', a new private-permissioned blockchain network for the mobile industry. The first suite of GSMA applications hosted on the network aims to transform the wholesale roaming clearing and settlement process. The network has the potential to support a wide range of operator business requirements, the organisation said.
The move follows almost four years of collaborative research between GSMA and six global mobile operator groups who were the founding members of the Blockchain for Wholesale Roaming (BWR) initiative convened by the GSMA. Together with GSMA, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, CK Hutchison, Orange, Telefonica, Verizon, and Vodafone consolidated several successful proof of concept trials using blockchain technology into a minimum viable product. The effort successfully delivered an open-source blockchain platform that automates the operations of the wholesale roaming settlement process.
This platform informs the GSMA eBusiness Network and its suite of wholesale roaming service applications. These new GSMA roaming services have the potential to ensure faster, more transparent, accurate and secure roaming operations for global mobile operators, the group said. They will also safeguard underlying processes, including clearing, rating, charging, and settlement for improved revenue assurance.
These GSMA services were developed independently of the BWR effort. Characterised by openness and transparency, GSMA roaming services are aligned with BWR's open-source principles and specifications, particularly realising a multi-party, multi-vendor, and ledger-agnostic environment on the GSMA eBusiness Network.
Collaboration has been central to the development of the BWR MVP platform, concluded in May. During this process, the BWR participants and GSMA focused on technical, governance and functional aspects of the blockchain platform, along with detailed requirements and architecture definitions, software development and testing.
