Getting Ready For A Digital Identity Era

The 5G rollout will enable world to harness mobile-based security and authentication in a big way, paving way for elimination of paper-based processes

- Naveen Chava

India has the world’s highest data usage per smartphone at an average of 9.8 GB per month, a new report by Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said, adding that this will double to 18 GB by 2024. Globally, the 4G service is expected to peak in 2023 and start declining, and the 5G subscriber base is expected to touch 1.9 Billion by 2024.

The mobile phones today are the smartest devices with not just connectivity, but also biometrics for verification like facial and voice recognition and fingerprint authentication, pin pad for payments, OTP verification etc., giving seamless, reduced cycle times and digital access from anywhere. Mobile phones are also the easiest device available for Video KYC that is needed for digital on-boarding, irrespective of the geographic limitations.

Coverage of geographic boundaries is required for travel mostly, and requires detailed traveler information like his current address, emergency contacts etc., which is always outdated and needs to be dynamically updated. In a way, the mobile phone of today is the device for verifiable identity as well as a payment terminal. The user base is the standard of valuation for businesses now and the growth user base is mostly coming from mobile phones whose count will be same as the world population soon.

Efficiency of business is measured by the user experience and retention which happens not just from the presentation but also from faster response, throughput, and capacity management. All of this will be even more possible with 5G which will improve the bandwidth by 10X and ultimately deliver the user experience on mobile phones.