Global service providers show support for Mobile Connect at London Summit

Over one-hundred senior representatives from a variety of high profile organisations gathered at the Mobile Connect Summit in London last week to discuss the interoperable digital identity solution and the advantages it can bring to consumers and digital services.

The Summit’s strong attendance was a reflection of the widespread industry support for Mobile Connect, with operators, service providers and other industry players all keenly aware of the mounting need for a secure digital identity solution that can enable the scaling of the digital market. Speakers included senior representatives from organisations such as Lloyds, Visa, the UK Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service, Vodafone, Telefonica UK and Telenor subsidiary, Telenor Digital.

The Summit provided valuable insight into a wide range of operator, service provider and even government perspectives on the emergence of digital identity and its implications across multiple sectors.

With digital identity evolving at such a rapid pace, the event helped cement common positions between operators and service providers as both adapt to meet this challenge. Various use cases were considered and market experiences recounted. Both parties recognised the value of Mobile Connect’s international cross-border capabilities and underscored the importance of the service having recently been made available to 2 billion users.

A number of shared priorities were identified – data security, for example, remains of utmost importance for organisations and consumers alike, particularly in relation to financial transactions. It was widely recognised that operators can improve consumer confidence in the security of authentication solutions, something which is crucial in scaling the market.

Following this, attendees and panellists engaged more deeply with the question as to what constitutes a successful digital identity solution. On this point, experts encouraged attendees to consider what users what want from a digital solution. Here, the debate strayed into the importance of privacy and the control each user would have in controlling and sharing their data. In this respect the advantages of Mobile Connect were stated by a representative from Telenor: “why use Mobile Connect over other solutions? It is more secure, more transparent and gives the user more control and choice”.

Perhaps the summit’s most compelling message was that many of the benefits that Mobile Connect will afford can, as yet, only be conjectured. Experts agreed that the workings of a next-generation digital identity solution are best explored through active participation, and as the Government Digital Service’s David Rennie affirmed: ‘the most practical thing to [do] is apply it’.