T-Mobile Parent Joins Polygon Blockchain as Validator

T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom has become a validator on Polygon, a popular Ethereum scaling solution.

Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary, Deutsche Telekom MMS, will physically be running nodes on Polygon, joining 100 other validators on the network, according to a press release.

Additionally, the company will be providing staking services to Polygon’s Supernets, which are application-specific chains that bridge associated rootchains to the mainnet. They are supposed to provide scalability and interoperability for decentralized applications (dapps), according to Polygon.

Dirk Röder, head of Deutsche Telekom’s Blockchain Solutions Center, in a statement said running Polygon nodes represents an “important step for Deutsche Telekom MMS to fully exploit the potential of blockchain technology and enable applications suitable for mass deployment.”

The executive added that Deutsche Telekom will be supporting Polygon staking, although it’s unclear whether the company plans to offer staking services directly to the public.

Röder told Blockworks that the company is “making significant commitments to expand its presence and reliability as an infrastructure provider in the Web3 domain.”

“Supporting the Polygon network as a Validator is a big milestone in this objective,” Röder said. Deutsche Telekom MMS is also working on a more “advanced solution specifically tailored for the Ethereum network,” without providing further detail.

Deutsche Telekom has previously stepped in to run infrastructure for other chains, including Flow, Celo, Chainlink and Ethereum itself.