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Decentralizing Telecom Services Using Blockchains and DAOs The increase of on-demand service offerings from telecommunications companies comprised of component services from multiple partners has exposed limitations to how suppliers check availability and price their services. For instance, service providers need to find the optimal path for Carrier Ethernet circuits that span multiple operators. Requesting capacity and pricing information from all the possible suppliers of ENNIs (External Network-to-Network Interfaces) is too slow and cumbersome to meet the needs of the enterprise customer of the circuit. Blockchain technologies, and the even newer concept of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), where groups of collaborating suppliers use smart contracts and tokenomics for governance offer a viable solution. Together, these technologies enable a radically new approach for trusted partners to share sensitive commercial information in real time a­bout transactional resources. In this post, Charmond Tsang, CCO of DCConnect, introduces suppliers to the use of DAOs for increasing the utilization of ENNIs and creating optimal circuit offerings for enterprise customers. DCConnect’s Televerse DAO empowers carriers and data centers to help enterprise customers search for telecom services across multiple telecommunications carriers. The Expedia Analogy In the recent past, planning an airline trip involved visiting a travel agent to get pricing and route options. Today, a large number of travelers use online flight planning and purchasing services like Expedia, Booking.com, Skyscanner, etc. These online travel platforms provide an immediate detailed view of all airline flights and options available to and from a destination, simplifying a user’s decision-making process. Some may think Expedia (which was established in 1996), and similar companies, have commoditized commercial air travel and reduced margins to the point that the aviation business is no longer lucrative.  In fact, between 2003 and 2020 commercial airline revenues grew from US$322Bn to US$838Bn, and the utilization of passenger seats (the passenger load factor) steadily climbed from 75.2% in 2005 to 82.6% in 2019. In effect, aviation travel industry revenues have grown, and the industry has become more efficient over the two decades these online platforms have been available. Why can’t the same be done in the telecom industry for business network services across the globe? This question is increasingly relevant with the push to utilize resources, including energy, in the telecom sector in a more sustainable and cost-effective manner. One challenge has perhaps been Communication Service Providers’ hesitation to allow pricing and availability data to be available to a third party, and potentially to competitors. While this was an issue when long-term contracts for data connectivity were the norm, today more and more telecom services are based on short-term commitments or even on-demand business models. Availability and pricing are so dynamic today that one-for-one comparisons are very hard to make, a complexity that can be seen today in the airline and smartphone services industries, to name just two examples. Another possible barrier has been the telecom industry’s lack of a trusted platform, managed by a third party, to orchestrate the availability of data presented to the customer in real time. This barrier can be overcome utilizing blockchain, self-sovereign identity, and cryptography to enable a new decentralized approach in which a trusted third party is not required. The Televerse DAO Consider the advantages of a Televerse DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). A DAO is managed by a set of rules agreed upon by all DAO participants and encoded in a smart contract. A DAO operates on a blockchain network controlled by members who can participate in the decision-making process through voting and other mechanisms. DAOs are often used to create decentralized platforms or networks that allow members to share resources, complete transactions, or collaborate on projects. A DAO provides a transparent and democratic way of organizing and managing a community or project without the need for a central authority or intermediary. One of the key features of a DAO is the use of smart contracts to automate the execution of rules and agreements. Smart contracts can help reduce the risk of errors or fraud, making the process of managing a DAO more efficient and cost-effective. In the specific case of the Televerse DAO, the participating organizations are carriers and data centers that offer connectivity services. The Decentralized Telecom Expedia The Televerse DAO allows enterprise customers to search for telecom services across multiple telecommunications carriers. Once a solution is agreed upon by all carriers involved, the customer can use a digital wallet to fund a contract and pay the carriers for their services. The DAO uses smart contracts to automate the funding and provisioning process, ensuring that carriers are held accountable for meeting their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Just like Expedia, the Televerse DAO makes it easy for someone building a connectivity service to find the most suitable network services available by interacting with the DAO and searching for the required services. ENNI Visibility and Pricing Additionally, the process of funding and provisioning the circuit can be complex and error-prone, especially when dealing with multiple carriers. The lack of standardization and automation in the process can lead to delays and misunderstandings, impacting the quality of service and customers’ experiences. Specifically, the Televerse DAO addresses the issue of visibility into the ENNI’s (External Network to Network Interface) availability and pricing by enabling carriers to input and share their pricing data on the platform. Enhanced visibility of participating carriers pricing information allows enterprise customers to compare options and find the best deal. The DAO also provides a governance system that can review and address any issues that arise when using the platform. Who Benefits? The Televerse DAO provides benefits to several stakeholders, including enterprise customers, data centers, and operators. Data centers benefit from the Televerse DAO by being able to connect to multiple carriers and offer their customers a wider range of network services. This helps to increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of their data center, and potentially drive more business. Operators can benefit from the Televerse DAO by being able to input and share their pricing data on the platform. This ability can

What’s the Problem? To make the most of network infrastructure, a carrier must be able to lease it to customers.  But how do you sell that capacity in an environment with many barriers to entry and collaboration?Barriers:* Most potential customers cannot see your inventory* Partner discovery and integration is slow and labor intensive* When collaborations fall below customer expectation, it is often difficult to prove which party failed Can we solve these issues with a centralized system? This question becomes, who is so well-trusted in the domain, that they could form the hub that supplies everyone with information about everyone else’s capabilities? In the telecom space, this question doesn’t have an obvious answer, so we turn to a decentralized architecture.  This causes us to ask questions like how to:1. identify partners in a decentralized system,2. guarantee the providence of partner data,3. share this guaranteed data with selected partners securely and privately.  Fortunately, W3C have answered many of these questions through standards around decentralized identifiers (DID), DID documents (DIDDocs), and verifiable credentials (VCs). The Integrated Trust Network (ITN) is a federated network for securing and managing the relationship of cryptographic control keys to DIDs and for resolving DIDs to their DIDDocs.  It also publishes an SDK used to implement a Self Sovereign Digital Twin (SSDT) that interacts with the ITN and other SSDTs to facilitate the selective distribution of verifiable credentials (think of these as data payloads with proofs of providence) to other trusted SSDTs.  To advertise our identity, all we need to do is publish a DIDDoc to ITN that contains our public keys. We can prove ownership of the associated DID through a demonstration of possession of the corresponding private key. In addition, DIDDocs can contain “service” endpoints that any SSDT can interact with to get a list of available verifiable credential presentations, corresponding to, for example, a national company registration entry. Whether an SSDT provides a particular presentation to a requester can be made dependent on the DID of the requester. Putting it All Together Televerse encapsulates many new and exciting technologies, including an innovative tokenomics framework.  A distributed autonomous organization (DAO) governs the points of mutability in the smart contracts that mint tokens, distribute proceeds from the sale of services, and delegate authorization for critical tasks like endorsing locations. Service providers own a Televerse node (SSDT and system of record) that functions as an interface for sharing knowledge of their networking infrastructure with other service providers.  Enterprise customers can request data center interconnects that span multiple carriers and commission them by powering a contract with the Televerse token.The primary purpose of the Televerse Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) is to create an open and transparent market for the purchase and sale of telecommunications services. It allows enterprise customers to search for network ports and data center interconnects (DCIs) across multiple telecommunications carriers. Once a solution is agreed upon by all carriers involved, the customer can fund a contract to pay the carriers and hold them accountable for providing their segment of the service and meeting the associated Service Level Agreements (SLAs).Telecommunications carriers can use a web portal under their control to input their network infrastructure pricing data, which is then made available to enterprise customers and other carriers on the DAO. This process can be automated using the MEF LSO Sonata APIs.  Carriers can choose to keep certain data private by sharing it with other carriers on a carrier-by-carrier basis using the Integrated Trust Network (ITN). Enterprise customers can visit any of the carrier web portals to interact with the DAO. When a customer agrees to a service, they can use a crypto wallet to initiate the telecommunications service on the DAO.  Once a contract is funded, the carrier web portal sends the appropriate API calls to the carrier’s Business Support System (BSS) to provision the service. A portion of the fee paid by the customer goes to a validation pool, which can be used to guarantee the service to the customer. If an SLA is violated, the customer can request a challenge to the circuit. The result of that challenge is recorded on the distributed ledger and acted upon by the DAO. The Televerse DAO has a governance system that involves the issuance of Televerse Governance NFTs (TGNs) to carriers and investors in the DAO. TGN holders can vote on the selection of a Governance Committee, which holds Televerse Committee NFTs (TCNs) and can vote on governance issues on the DAO. The DAO funds its development and maintenance through fees collected from customer contracts, as well as through investments from the Televerse DAO’s TGN holders. Overall, the Televerse DAO provides a platform for enterprise customers to search for network services across multiple carriers and pay for them using smart contracts. It also enables carriers to input and share their pricing data, and provides a governance system to ensure the smooth operation of the platform.

Why is the Vietnam Market Potential? Vietnam is poised to become the next big player in the telecommunications industry, offering tremendous potential for companies looking to tap into the rapidly growing Asian market. With a population of over 100 million and a rapidly developing economy, Vietnam is a hotbed of innovation and progress, making it the perfect place to launch or expand your telecoms business. The government’s investments in the sector have led to the development of cutting-edge infrastructure and advanced technologies, making Vietnam a hub of progress and growth. Whether you’re a seasoned player in the industry or a newcomer eager to break into a dynamic market, Vietnam has something to offer. Digital Transformation of Vietnam One of the main forces behind Vietnam’s digital revolution is the telecoms sector. In 2022, the ICT sector, which includes the telecommunications industry, might account for up to 8.02 percent of Vietnam’s GDP. As the country moves to implement the fourth industrial revolution, the telecommunications industry will play a vital role in the process. The Vietnam telecommunications market had a value of US$6.3 billion in 2021 and was expected to grow at a CAGR of about 1% between 2021 and 2027. The digital transformation of corporations and the pandemic have fueled a surge in demand for internet and telecommunication services, and this industry is expected to expand much more. In a highly competitive climate with a promising economic outlook, the Vietnamese telecoms sector is developing and offers tremendous prospects for both domestic and foreign investors. Between 2022 and 2027, average GDP growth of 7.2% is forecasted. Future growth is expected to remain strong despite an aging population in the long run due to already high mobile phone penetration and rising fixed broadband take-up in households. According to the press release, international businesses will consider several strategies for entering the market, such as investing in local partners or concentrating on other service sectors with lots of opportunity for growth and competition, like data centers, the cloud, and other platform services. For example, DCConnect Global Limited, a leading autonomous networking infrastructure with Carrier Neutral and Cloud Neutral, enables enterprises to provision all sorts of infrastructure in just a minute. We have more than 1000+ Points of Presence (POPs) and 200+ cloud platforms, allowing users to connect their network facilities in a Data Centre to the DCConnect global Ecosystem. Our DC Gateway enables the ecosystem partners to reach out to companies for their network resources. It also connects all other data centres and cloud players from different countries. Opportunities and entry barriers for foreign investors Due to high entry barriers, the telecoms industry in Vietnam is currently dominated by domestic players like FPT, NetNam, Viettel, and CMC, though CMC has 45 percent of shares owned by a Malaysian firm. The Vietnamese government only allows foreign investment in the telecoms industry in the form of: Joint ventures, partnerships, or buying shares for basic telecommunications services; Purchase of shares, partnerships, joint ventures with telecommunications enterprises in Vietnam that have been licensed to establish a network infrastructure for services with network infrastructure. Any organization or individual that already owns more than 20 percent of the charter capital of a telecoms enterprise is not entitled to own more than 20 percent of the charter capital of another enterprise in the same segment. However, foreign investors are allowed to own up to 100 percent of the undersea fiber optic cable transmission capacity ashore at the fiber optic cable station in Vietnam and can sell that capacity to any licensed telecommunications network operator in Vietnam. What Impressive Growth Continues to Attract Foreign Investment in Vietnam’s Data Center Sector? As the world continues to rely heavily on data-driven technology, the demand for reliable and efficient data center services has never been higher. The data center market has experienced tremendous growth, with Vietnam emerging as a leading destination for investment in this field. Vietnam has emerged as a leading player in this growing industry, experiencing impressive growth in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and attracting foreign investment as a result. According to the “Cloud and Data Center Growth in Emerging Market” report, Vietnam’s data center sector is ranked among the top ten emerging landscapes for global data centers, offering both a large market size and exceptional service delivery capabilities. In 2020, the market size was valued at USD 858 million and is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 14.64% until 2026 . The country’s continued investment in its data center infrastructure, along with the persistently increasing demand for data center services, positions Vietnam as a highly attractive destination for foreign investors in the years to come.