CBSG Consortium adds new Members, Completes Cross-Carrier, Cross-Border Field Trials

The Carrier Blockchain Study Group (“CBSG”), the global blockchain consortium of telecom carriers, has announced that Taiwan-based Asia Pacific Telecom Co., Ltd. (“APT”), U.A.E.-based du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (“EITC”) and South Africa-based MTN Group (“MTN”), have joined the consortium to collaborate on building a next-generation global cross-carrier blockchain platform and ecosystem. This increases the number of trailblazing carriers in the consortium to 15.

The CBSG Consortium is also announcing successful field trials of its cross-carrier, cross-border, mobile payment service that is enabled by TBCASoft’s Cross-Carrier Blockchain Platform called CCPS (Cross-Carrier Payment System). In January 2019, CBSG carrier members including Taiwan-based Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (“Far EasTone”) and Japan-based SoftBank Corp.

(“SoftBank”) completed mobile wallet transactions on the payment network of the other carrier. SoftBank mobile users traveled to Taiwan and purchased goods at a participating retailer using their mobile wallet while on Far EasTone’s network. The trials use either (i) direct carrier billing where transactions are conveniently billed and paid through their carrier in their home-currency and potentially avoiding credit card overseas-transaction fees, or (ii) an OTT payment adapter to link CCPS to popular OTT payment solutions.

Similarly, Far EasTone mobile users traveled to Japan and made successful retail mobile wallet purchases while on SoftBank’s network. CCPS provides a prompt settlement mechanism in cross-carrier services and offers users a friendly payment experience. The two carriers have discussed a high-level business model for the payment service and to evaluate future commercial trials.

The CBSG Consortium is the leading telecom blockchain consortium. It was launched in September 2017 to enable the joint development of an innovative blockchain platform designed specifically for telecom carriers, led by U.S.-based blockchain technology company TBCASoft, Inc. (“TBCASoft”), and SoftBank, with U.S.-based Sprint Corporation (“Sprint”), and Far EasTone as initial founding members. CBSG aims to provide telecom members and their customers various services such as secured global digital payments, clearing and settlement, personal authentication, IoT applications and other services using blockchain technology.

NanRen Huang, President of APT said, “There’s a considerable amount of hype over the promise of 5G. In managing such a complex ’ecosystem’ will require greater computing power and enhance security capacity. It will promote blockchain technology as a new service in telecoms by higher speed connection enables transparency and efficiencies in the transaction. It takes us the opportunity to cover new markets that were unreachable before, such as cross-carrier and cross-border services.

Farid Faraidooni, Deputy CEO – Enterprise Solutions of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company said: “At EITC, we continually strive to leverage best-in-class technologies to create world-class solutions that drive the future of the UAE, the Middle East region and the world. We believe that blockchain developments have great potential to shape and redefine the Telecom ecosystem, especially with regards to next-generation use cases. By joining CBSG, we are proud to solidify our commitment to this expert consortium of blockchain experts and to remain akin to the futuristic agenda of the UAE, as well as the country’s Blockchain Strategy 2021.”

Nikos Angelopoulos, Group CIO of MTN said, “Blockchain technology has real potential to transform many facets of our business. As we are going through the advent of the ecosystem economy, it is crucial for us to harness technologies like blockchain to create fast, efficient and innovative solutions for our customers and our partners. There are potentially limitless opportunities in existing core areas (e.g. customer management, fraud management, asset management, roaming, wholesale, supply chain) and for exciting new capabilities (e.g. identity-as-a-service, eSIM/IoT, 5G enablement, payments). To be successful, we need to deploy the right services at the right time in order to create and capture value in the marketplace. By joining the CBSG consortium, we will learn together with leading major telecom operators to use blockchain as one of the vehicles of the Digital Transformation journey."

Sherman Lee, Executive Vice President of Far EasTone said, “There are many successful stories of applying blockchain technology in different industries. Far EasTone has been pursuing opportunities to collaborate with partners in various industries, market segments, and locations, and even globally. As an initial founding member of CBSG Consortium, we acquire the know-how and obtain new opportunities in the field of innovation. Far EasTone has applied blockchain technology to mobile wallet roaming trials early this year. With the increase of new members, we see more opportunities and can provide more various applications and secure services in the future.”

Ling Wu, Founder and CEO of TBCASoft, and Co-Chairman of the CBSG Consortium said, “I am very happy to welcome three progressive carriers into the consortium. This increases the number of mobile users that we may reach through our consortium members, to 1.3+ billion. I am also excited to announce the first successful field trials of our blockchain-based cross-carrier, cross-border payment service, by the CBSG Consortium carrier members. TBCASoft is working together with Far EasTone, SoftBank, and soon other CBSG members on a production plan so we can provide secure blockchain-based payment services to their global users in the near future.”