diff --git a/.ghcr.env b/.ghcr.env
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..2eea525d88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.ghcr.env
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.env
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8327d1d2cc..d23e001c9e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ vendor/
 composer.lock
 .venv
 .dockerhub.env
-.ghcr.env
 
 src/frontend/cypress/videos
 src/frontend/cypress/screenshots
diff --git a/src/cartservice/src/Program.cs b/src/cartservice/src/Program.cs
index 743fe542b9..0f27344f4d 100644
--- a/src/cartservice/src/Program.cs
+++ b/src/cartservice/src/Program.cs
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@
 using OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.StackExchangeRedis;
 using OpenTelemetry.Logs;
 using OpenTelemetry.Metrics;
-using OpenTelemetry.ResourceDetectors.Container;
-using OpenTelemetry.ResourceDetectors.Host;
 using OpenTelemetry.Resources;
 using OpenTelemetry.Trace;
 using Serilog;
@@ -63,6 +61,8 @@
 
 var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
 string valkeyAddress = builder.Configuration["VALKEY_ADDR"];
+string collectorAddress = builder.Configuration["OTEL_COLLECTOR_NAME"];
+string serviceName = builder.Configuration["OTEL_SERVICE_NAME"];
 if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(valkeyAddress))
 {
     Console.WriteLine("VALKEY_ADDR environment variable is required.");
@@ -73,6 +73,11 @@
     Console.WriteLine("OTEL_COLLECTOR_NAME environment variable is required.");
     Environment.Exit(1);
 }
+if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(serviceName))
+{
+    serviceName = "CartService";
+    Console.WriteLine("OTEL_SERVICE_NAME environment variable is not set. Defaulting to service name \'CartService\'.");
+}
 
 //string outputTemplate = "{Timestamp:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.fff zzz} [{Level:u3}] trace_id=\"{trace_id}\" span_id=\"{span_id}\" service.name=\"{service_name}\" service.version=\"{service_version}\" deployment.environment=\"{deployment_environment}\"{NewLine}{Message:lj}{NewLine}{Exception}";
 
diff --git a/src/cartservice/src/cartservice.csproj b/src/cartservice/src/cartservice.csproj
index 42baf0f3a2..5a07cb1911 100644
--- a/src/cartservice/src/cartservice.csproj
+++ b/src/cartservice/src/cartservice.csproj
@@ -33,13 +33,15 @@
     <PackageReference Include="OpenFeature" Version="1.5.1" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
+  <!--
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="Google.Protobuf" Version="3.25.1" />
-    <PackageReference Include="Grpc.Net.Client" Version="2.61.0" />
+    <PackageReference Include="Grpc.Net.Client" Version="2.63.0" />
     <PackageReference Include="Serilog.Sinks.PeriodicBatching" Version="4.0.0-*" />
     <PackageReference Include="System" Version="4.1.0" />
     <PackageReference Include="System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource" Version="8.0.0" />
   </ItemGroup>
+  -->
 
   <ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="OpenTracing" Version="0.12.1" />