Ray Kimble, Founder & President
Mobile World Congress (MWC) is rapidly attaining a reputation as the world’s leading technology trade show. No longer fixed to its mobile roots, it now encompasses emerging technology in the broadest sense, showcasing the latest solutions that businesses can adopt to improve their services.
Its importance is reflected in the growing number of industry leaders and the increasing variety of vertical-specific companies attending the event. According to the GSMA, this year’s MWC attracted over 100,000 attendees and its Ministerial Programme hosted government ministers, delegates and regulators from over 137 countries, all of which gathered to shape the future of digital services.
This seems to be the edge which MWC possesses over comparable tech trade shows; whilst others also exhibit the very latest devices, there is a genuine sense that Mobile World Congress is the international platform for enabling a connected world of next generation solutions.
Central to this, is the growing emphasis on data and of digital identity, and it was a telling sign that both featured heavily during the event. Leading the headlines was the announcement that digital identity solution, Mobile Connect, is now available to 2 billion users. Launched at MWC in 2014, the solution aims to mitigate the vulnerability and inconvenience of a password system by enabling users to manage a universal digital identity with a secure, single log-in authentication via their mobile phone, as highlighted by the popular spoken word poet, Marshall Jones.
At a series of seminars, experts underscored their support for Mobile Connect as a credible and scalable digital identity solution that can be used across multiple sectors. The security and convenience to consumers, businesses and governments it provides will help accelerate the delivery of new and innovative digital services.
Across the globe, there is a growing political momentum behind digital identity as a way to improve public services and also reduce costs. This was acknowledged in a GSMA seminar which concentrated on Mobile Connect’s impact on the public sector, where a strong panel of industry experts from organisations including National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), World Bank and the European Commission (EC), backed the solution for many public sector services such as healthcare, tax returns and payments.
The prominence of digital identity at this year’s MWC was indicative of the decisive role it will have in enabling next generation digital services to flourish. For more information about how organizations can benefit from digital identity solutions, please visit Kimble and Associates.
