China’s giant telecom network operators are uniting in an undertaking to accelerate innovation in their industry in Blockchain and to lead the nation’s advancement in the emerging technology.

The three Hong Kong-listed telecommunication organizations- China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which are the motors behind the world’s greatest versatile market by endorsers, are making efforts to center around Blockchain-based applications like sharing of information from their different Internet of Things (IoT) systems, identity verification, network security, and operations management. This could reduce their operational costs and foster network security. Their mutually driven efforts form part of the Trusted Blockchain initiative of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) which is an exploration body under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as indicated by an announcement done by the institute a week ago.

Huawei Technologies which is the world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier will be working as the deputy’s head for the initiative. Allen Li, Former Huawei engineer who is also the Chief architect of Hong Kong-based Blockchain startup QLC Chain said-  “In the next three to five years, we can expect to see more than 60 percent of telecoms services use blockchain technology”. Additionally, he said- “Blockchain will not only help telcos lower operational costs for things like user identification, billing, and content delivery network, but it will serve as the best solution to improve network security.”

Roadmap to the Future

China has helped to leverage the scope of Blockchain Technology by including the technology as part of a state-level policy. In 2016, it was announced that Blockchain was written into the 13th Five-Year Plan, a roadmap for the country’s development in the five years to 2020 by Premier Li Keqiang.

“In the next three to five years, we can expect to see more than 60 percent of telecoms services use blockchain technology” quoted Allen Li. Also, a report released in MarketWatch reported that Blockchain in telecommunications and networking which is currently a $46 million enterprise, could grow to be a $993 million industry by 2023.

The Trusted Blockchain initiative was launched by the CAICT with the aim to explore various use-cases of Blockchain in the insurance, logistics, healthcare finance, and other sectors. At present, there are almost 200 companies joined with this initiative. Along with Huawei, some other companies which are involved in this effort are ZTE Corp which is a network equipment supplier, Union Mobile Financial Technology which is a payment services provider, and other startups including ChainNova and Qulian Technology.

However, the success of Blockchain is not free from the chains of regulatory authorities which are allowing/blocking the progress of the technology in various sectors. Being in its infancy we can infer that Blockchain is definitely transforming the future space with more and more use-cases.