Telefonica’s technology arm partnered with infrastructure and asset management software company Atrebo to digitise 200,000 telecoms infrastructure elements, including towers and other sites, with blockchain technology.

In a statement, the operator explained Atrebo will use Telefonica’s TrustOS blockchain-based platform to provide traceability and transparency to tower operations and logistics.

The platform will record information such as incidences, issues and traffic data managed by the infrastructure, and provide the data to infrastructure managers in near real time.

Telefonica stated its platform will also enable transparency in activities in maintenance, adding or removing equipment and energy management, among others.

The operator also highlighted benefits for the creation of new business models for telecoms assets including commercialising tower rights or implementing crowdfunding mechanisms for operations or future deployments.

Other moves by the operator in the field include teaming with blockchain start-up aitos.io for a 5G blockchain IoT module and upping the security of TrustOS through a partnership with digital identity specialist Entrust.