World Mobile CIO Josh Watkins to become CEO of Minutes Network
Josh Watkins – co-founder and CIO of global mobile network World Mobile – is to be named CEO of the world’s first blockchain-based international voice-calling service.
The 34-year-old will head up Minutes Network, a new venture that also provides wholesale termination, after leaving his role with World Mobile.
The international wholesale minutes market is considered a crucial component of the global telecommunications industry, involving the bulk buying and selling of voice-call minutes between providers, carriers, and resellers. It annually terminates more than 270 billion minutes of international voice call traffic, generating revenues of over $13 billion.
However, it is also an industry considered highly fragmented due to its numerous independent providers and complex agreements, making it an obvious candidate to attract blockchain technology.
“Josh has been working in the international wholesale voice market for nearly twenty years,” said World Mobile co-founder and CEO Micky Watkins.
“The new venture is very close to his heart and one he has been wanting to launch for some time. Given the outstanding work at World Mobile, we are confident and comfortable that this is the right time.”
Incoming Minutes Network CEO Josh Watkins said the project had been in his mind for several years.
“It is an entirely complementary business to World Mobile, essentially an infrastructure business,” he explained.
“Minutes Network, on the other hand, is purely concerned with terminating international voice traffic. With Micky at the helm, I feel safe stepping aside and bringing my project to market.
“I have the right team and superb industry partners, and we are going to demonstrate to the world how blockchain technologies can transform and democratize large-scale established real-world business, starting with the international minutes’ industry.”