According to Oxford Dictionaries, Federation means “the action of forming states or organizations into a single group with centralized control”. Federation in the context of identity usually means that a single set of identity credentials can be used to access multiple services. In this case, the centralized control is held by the identity (ID) scheme provider. States or organizations are service providers, in technical language also called relying parties, who use the outsourced ID service for their log-in and electronic transactions.
Today we can differentiate between three levels of ID federation:
• Basic federation is achieved when one set of outsourced ID credentials can be used to access multiple 3rd party services.
• Another layer is added when federation happens across mobile networks: This is the case when another operator accepts and entrusts credentials by my home operator. This way users can access federated services originally provided to customers on another network.
• The highest level of federation is achieved when federation happens across borders and involves ID networks in different countries.
It’s easily overlooked, but there are lots of similarities between ID federation and mobile roaming. A common username-password identity can be compared to two telephones connected by a wire. You can only make phone calls from one phone to the other. However if you place a switchboard in the middle, it is possible to establish a phone call between any two phones in the network. This is very similar to federated ID services. When operators agreed to allow roaming across networks it was a big leap forward for the entire mobile industry. Within a country customers could suddenly call any other phone and conduct their private or professional business without boundaries. A similar big step forward was the introduction of international roaming to enable phone calls across borders. This can easily be labelled as one of the key drivers of globalization, and the GSMA can rightfully claim to have played a key role in enabling this process.
Though these steps sounds like a logical development, mobile telephony came a long way from closed networks to international roaming. Many things had to happen in the background: Technology had to be standardised, networks had to be integrated, numbering schemes had to be globally aligned so that each phone only had one number, and billing and revenue-share models had to be agreed between operators. All this took years to achieve, but the benefits exceeded the obstacles and costs in every way.
Digital Identity management is still at the beginning of this process. Today, most services have their own username-password login what is comparable to having two phones connected by a wire. In some cases you can have one ID to access multiple websites, a service for example provided by Google or Facebook. In some countries you already find advanced national e-ID ecosystems based on Mobile ID, Bank ID or national e-ID schemes. And then there are even raw exceptions, like for example in Finland, where cross-operator federation of ID services is possible since 2011.
However, this is just the beginning. The next step requires cross-border federation of operator mobile ID services on a global scale. It’s likely that this process will need to start with low-threshold log in –type of Federated ID services, simply because the technical, commercial and regulatory issues are easier to solve with these types of services. However the rollout of stronger mobile ID digital signature services will not be far behind, as some countries are already discussing federated Mobile ID schemes across borders.
Why is mobile ID federation across networks and borders so important? At stake is nothing less than the ability to offer secure and easy-to-use digital online and mobile services globally. Users need to be able to authenticate, authorize and approve payments digitally across different services, networks and borders. This drives global reach and scale in online economies and benefits both users and online service providers, and not the least the mobile operators themselves: If operator-driven Mobile ID gets interwoven into the heart of digital transactions, operators will have a place in the value chain and stay relevant in online and real-time economy.
Maybe operators need to be reminded that they already have the required technical, commercial and regulatory experience in the area: Today, the mobile industry interconnects already over 2 billion mobile phones across services, networks and borders.