U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T is the latest to join blockchain bandwagon. The company has created a suite of blockchain solutions for its enterprise customers designed to work with technology from IBM and Microsoft. With these solutions, AT&T's enterprise customers can automate and digitalize their business processes and have better resources to track and manage information across multiple parties.
Andy Daudelin, vice president, Alliances Business Development, AT&T Business said:
“Blockchain is far more than just Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. It’s transforming the way many companies conduct business. Blockchain improves security and enables better management of transactions through complex processes. Utilizing our global network and IoT [Internet of Things] capabilities, AT&T enhances blockchain by providing edge-to-edge solutions that automate the tracking and that can even monitor the environmental conditions throughout the process.”
On IBM's Blockchain Platform, AT&T Solutions can record data as it supports a broad range of industry use cases including supply chain, provenance and logistics. AT&T is also integrating its Asset Management Operations Center with IBM Maximo Network on Blockchain and Maximo Asset Health Insights to create secure and accountable service provider networks for infrastructure asset management. While with Microsoft Azure blockchain technology that supports a broad set of enterprise ledger protocols including Ethereum, HyperLedger Fabric, Corda, Quorum, and Chain, AT&T aims to bring additional transparency and accountability to even the most complex supply chains.
The AT&T solutions apply to its enterprise customers across vertical industries like manufacturing, retail, healthcare and more. For the manufacturing industry, these will help tracks origins and movement of goods through factories and the quality from creation, to delivery, to the consumer. For retail, it will help ensure products’ authenticity by tracking them from order delivery, reducing waste and excess stock. While for the healthcare industry, it will help maintain and allows highly-secure sharing of directories of up-to-date patient records.
Last month, Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure announced a new Ethereum (ETH) proof-of-authority (PoA) algorithm that would allow for a “more efficient” way of building decentralized applications (DApps). Also in August, IBM, together with Danish transport and logistics giant Maersk, launched 'TradeLens', a blockchain-enabled shipping solution, designed to promote a more efficient and secure global trade, bringing together various parties to support information sharing and transparency, and spur industry-wide innovation.
Last week, LG Uplus Corp., a South Korean cellular carrier owned by LG Corporation, announced that it is launching a blockchain-based overseas payment service. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwan-based Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., to develop the new service on a cross-carrier blockchain platform called CCPS (Cross-Carrier Payment System).
