UK Telecom Regulator Wins Grant to Study Blockchain

The U.K. is sponsoring research into organizing and managing phone numbers by the national telecom regulator.

The Regulators' Pioneer Fund announced on Friday that it would award nearly £700,000 to Ofcom, the national telecommunications regulatory authority, "For a project that uses blockchain technology to improve U.K. telephone number management."

Ofcom provided more details about the project Monday, saying in a press release that there are roughly 1 billion phone numbers available to U.K. residents, "Either already in use or reserved for allocation."

"We issue blocks of these numbers to telecoms operators, who manage the numbers and movement of them into and out of their control," it explained.

Blockchain technology could be used to lower costs, make porting more efficient, streamline fraud or "Nuisance" call management and provide customers with a better experience.

"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."

In particular, centralized databases are expensive and put up "Barriers to collaboration," but a blockchain platform "Offers an opportunity to build a cost-effective and future-proof solution."

Further, the regulators intend to "Share key learnings, best practices, and the underlying code base, where applicable, with other regulators."

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