Mobile ID gains traction in India

—Atul Singh, Valimo Wireless, Gemalto

Voice&Data: Why Mobile ID is important? Atul Singh: Nowadays, people are very scared of revealing their identities online because of ID thefts and ID frauds that are happening worldwide. Even big companies like Yahoo, Amazon and a number of banks, have all been victims of online fraud. Further people are also losing their passwords and usernames by using online services. At times, it becomes difficult to manage and remember different passwords and user names For example, we have Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, MSN user Id and passwords. So, on an average a person who is active on the internet has got 26 user names and may be 9 passwords that he has to manage in his daily life. And with Mobile ID we are bringing convenience and trust in this whole ecosystem whereby your mobile number happens to be your only username and you can choose your own 4 or 5 digit pin which will be your password. So basically, it simplifies the lives of people who are managing a number of passwords and usernames and it makes all the transactions highly secure and at the same time is convenient to the end customer.

Voice&Data: How Mobile ID works? Atul Singh: In Mobile ID we are accessing internet on one channel which could be through the internet link of your device. So, while using the website you just have to enter the mobile number for login. After which you will get an SMS on your mobile phone for authentication. So, you are using two different channels, one to access the web server and other for authentication which is the mobile phone – telecom operated channel. And, since there are two different channels used, this in technical terms is known as, OOB-Out of Band, where the access channel is different from the authentication channel. This is why it is extremely difficult to hack.

Voice&Data: What is the future of Mo

bile ID?

Atul Singh: There is a lot of buzz across the world on the Mobile ID and even GSMA predicted an year ago that Mobile ID revenues for telecom operators worldwide would be close to US $17 billion by 2017. So, the market is quite large worldwide.

Voice&Data: What is the driving force that is pushing the usage of Mobile ID in India context?

Atul Singh: Yes! At the beginning of 2006 the Indian Government laid emphasis on the national e-governance plan called NEGP. The government focussed on electronic governance where they wanted to give various e-governance services to citizens of India electronically. Last three years into that policy they realized that they cannot ignore mobile governance. Because more than the broadband usage or the internet usage or desktops or laptops it was the mobile phones for which the subscribers were exponentially increasing in India.

Today, the number of subscribers in India is close to 900 million. So, in 2009-10 the government went back to NEGP and said that they have to include m-governance as well. So, on your question of driving force, the Government of India released the mobile governance framework on December 25, 2012. And subsequently, they released the e-authentication and the mobile authentication framework. So, these two frameworks were put in as a law in 2012, and then in March 2013 the Government of India passed the electronic delivery of services bill – Electronic Delivery of Services in India. So, after that Act, all government departments across India have to offer all the services online.

Voice&Data: Don’t you think that in comparison to the other countries India still faces some challenges as consumers are not open to such technologies?

Atul Singh: This is why, I mentioned in the beginning that the backend is complicated for the technology providers; however, for the end-user it is extremely-extremely simple. All you have to remember is your phone number and a four digit PIN. It’s like using an ATM card to withdraw money.