Page 81 - SAMENA Trends - Jan-Mar 2024

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Blockchain and the Evolution of Traditional Telco

Services

The advent of 5G and 5G roaming is revolutionizing the
telecommunications landscape, bringing unprecedented speed, low
latency, and enhanced connectivity. However, these advancements
also usher in a new era of complexity in terms of data management
and transaction processing.

The sheer volume of data generated and the multitude of transactions
occurring across borders in real time necessitate robust clearing
and settlement technologies. These technologies are critical for
managing and reconciling vast amounts of data, ensuring accurate
billing, and facilitating seamless cross-border transactions.

Moreover, as 5G enables a plethora of new services and applications,
from IoT devices to autonomous vehicles, the need for efficient,
transparent, and secure clearing and settlement mechanisms
becomes even more paramount. Without change, trust, and
automation, the industry cannot capture the potential of 5G and IoT
roaming.

The new way of doing business needs a clear and open consensus
mechanism. It also needs transaction validation and compliance,
uniformity in workflows, reconciliation, fraud detection and
prevention, as well as visibility online, and faster, better ways to
monetize this new traffic.

A little history behind international roaming settlement
International roaming settlement technologies have evolved
significantly since their inception. In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
international roaming agreements became more common between
Emma Blatch mobile network operators. These agreements allowed customers to
VP Outsourced Carrier Solutions use their mobile phones while traveling outside their home network
Syniverse coverage area to access local networks in other countries. But more
importantly, these agreements enabled mobile network operators to
charge each other for the use of their networks by their customers
when they travel abroad.

However, the evolution of these technologies has not been without
challenges. The traditional billing approach, Transfer Account
Procedures (TAP), was designed to handle roaming and billing

81 JANUARY-MARCH 2024