China Telecom to Launch Blockchain-Enabled 5G SIM Card

According to media reports, China Telecom Corporation Limited CHA is actively considering plans to develop blockchain-enabled 5G SIM card in order to secure a greater pie in the market. The move would enable the company to gain additional mileage by capitalizing on the wide proliferation of crypto currency amid increased deployment of 5G technology across the globe.

The company has reportedly provided a blueprint of its ambitious plan that aims to develop a SIM card that will support Ethereum and ERC20 tokens — the crypto assets used for trading — and is compatible with all types of smartphones. In addition, it is likely to have superior safety features for secure transaction across 5G network, including digital identity authentication for decentralized identification and data ownership for sharing data with financial services providers.

5G is billed as the technology of the future with faster download speed and seamless transfer of data. Leveraging state-of-the-art communication network architectures, 5G is touted to be the primary catalyst for next-generation IoT services. These include connected cars coupled with augmented reality and virtual reality platform, smart cities and connected devices that revolutionize key industry verticals.

Moreover, 5G is likely to augment the scalability, security and universal mobility of the telecommunications industry, which is expected to propel the wide proliferation of IoT. The telecom firms are facilitating its customers to move away from an economy-of-scale network operating model to demand-driven operations and seamlessly migrate to 5G by offering easy programmability and flexible automation.

Per data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China is likely to invest up to $411 billion in 5G over the next decade. This is likely to result in data deluge, exposing the network to potential threat from cyber espionage and data theft. Although the communist nation has taken a hard stance on the usage of blockchain, China Telecom is betting big on this technology as it is widely believed to offer superior safety features, regardless of data volume.

The stock has declined 8.2% in the past year compared with the industry's fall of 23.8%.

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