UK Grants A Telecom Regulator $915k To Study Blockchain

In the latest crypto news centered around regulation, the UK is sponsoring new research into organizing and managing phone numbers. After officially handing the grant to the UK telecom provider Ofcom, the national telecommunications authority awarded nearly £700,000 (just under $915,000) to the telecom provider in order to improve its UK telephone number management.

Ofcom, on the other hand, provided more details about the project on Monday in an official press release, stating that there are roughly 1 billion phone numbers available right now in the UK – either already in use or reserved for allocation.

The press release explained:

“We issue blocks of these numbers to telecoms operators, who manage the numbers and movement (porting) of them into and out of their control.”

As the country moves from traditional analog phone lines to Internet infrastructure, the current system may also face some challenges. This way, blockchain could improve them to lower costs, make the porting more efficient and streamline the fraud or “nuisance” call management while providing customers with a better experience.

As the chief technology of Ofcom, Mansoor Hanif, recently stated:

“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.”

The release also explained that despite the failure of past attempts, there are many potential improvements in the development of a new database. With this, Ofcom is ready to put up “barriers to collaboration” and “offer an opportunity to build a cost-effective and future-proof solution.”