Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


Telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are reportedly working on to bring a new mobile identity service that will replace the current OTP verification method. Right now, customers are required to enter an OTP generated by the client on the registered mobile number to avail some services. For example, if a customer is making a bank transaction at an e-commerce website, an OTP verification is required to process the transaction. However, a new ET Telecom report says telcos will soon verify the customers using their mobile numbers using a new technology called ‘Mobile Identity.’ The top three telcos are expecting to roll out this feature by the end of H1 2021. The report also added that the feature is currently being ‘piloted’ by the telcos.
Telcos Piloting New Mobile Identity Feature: What You Need to Know
The ET Telecom report highlights telecom operators will likely team up with companies like Route Mobile that provide these mobile identity services. As per the information available on Route Mobile’s website, ‘Mobile Identity as a Service,’ is a ‘secure universal log-in solution,’ that matches the user to their mobile phone. It allows the users to log into websites and applications quickly without the need to remember passwords and usernames. And Route Mobile also says the service is a safe, secure and no personal information will be shared without permission.
Here’s how the service might work:
Step 1: Route Mobile will identify the serving operator and requests the end user for authentication.
Step 2: The user identifies themselves with the PIN
Step 3: The end-user then confirms either single or dual-channel authentication sent on their mobile phone
Step 4: An authentication success or failure response is sent back to to the DSP.