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In Turkey, the United Kingdom-based telecommunications company Vodafone appears to be preparing for a significant move. The company plans to bring smartphone users closer to blockchain technology by integrating crypto wallets with subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
Vodafone’s Crypto Currency Step
This move by the company occurred amidst a corporate finance plan indicating that Vodafone Idea Ltd, operating in India and a 45% shareholder of Vodafone Group, could incur about $3 billion in debt over the next two years, partly through loans.
David Palmer, a lead at Vodafone Blockchain, recently participated in the Yahoo Finance Future Focus program. In his interview, he discussed the company’s plan to integrate blockchain technology with SIM cards used in smartphones:
By 2030, we expect over 20 billion mobile phones to be in operation, most of which will be smartphones. … Therefore, we are focused on linking SIM cards to digital identities, connecting SIM cards to blockchain, and using the cryptography we have on SIM cards for this integration.
Palmer stated that by 2030, it is likely that about eight billion smartphones will be in use, and the number of crypto wallets could rise to 5.6 billion.
The mentioned 5.6 billion wallet number already represents about 70% of the current global population, which is considered a significant figure.
Vodafone and New Partnerships
Prior to recent initiatives to secure a $3 billion loan, the India-based company Vodafone Idea Ltd had conducted a $2.2 billion share sale.
A new development on the Vodafone front had caught attention. It was recently announced that a 10-year strategic partnership had been formed with Microsoft to offer more functional artificial intelligence (AI) services to customers.
Following the agreement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also expressed his views, stating that the next generation of artificial intelligence would unlock new opportunities for every organization and industry worldwide.
While all these developments were taking place, eyes were also on the BTC price. At the time of writing, the BTC price was trading at $63,878, representing a 1.58% increase.
