Thoughts on managed ID services by mobile operators

Over the last couple of years, I have regularly heard discussion about the possibility of mobile operators providing "managed ID" services to either businesses or consumers. It's something I haven't really delved into in depth, but I've generally thought it makes a fair amount of sense in some circumstances, especially for the corporate market where employees may need ID cards or other forms of secure logon.

I hadn't really thought about the options for massmarket consumers until seeing a couple of presentations and panel discussions at yesterday's Telco 2.0 brainstorm in Nice. I'm now less certain about the whole thing.

Orange presented the notion of becoming like an individual's bank, trusted to store digital content, provide single log-on capabilities and so forth, "for their whole life". Insofar as I could make out however, this was all tied to the individual maintaining an Orange access connection (SIM, fixed broadband etc).

This is utterly unrealistic. I can't imagine that any sane person would want to lock themselves into a mobile or fixed access provider for life. Why would you want to entrust your photos, or music or digital signature to a company that actively prevents you from churning if you just want to get an exclusive phone offered by another operator?

I think that any link between identity management and access will lead to a complete erosion of trust. Loyalty is not the same as lock-in: it is earned, not enforced. This is something that telcos (especially mobile ones) tend to ignore. I keep hearing terms like "stickiness" in discussions about churn reduction, which is a codeword for lock-in. This is a surefire way for customer dissatisfaction, and you can bet that when the beleagured punter finally extricates himself from his contract with his data, he'll shout it from the rooftops.

I caused a fair amount of consternation by asserting that I trust my bank and Google more with my data than my main mobile operator (O2 in my case) or the UK government.

Over coffee, a representative of a vendor asked me why I don't trust operators with personal data - and why I trust Google more. My answers were:
(a) they already spam me through SMS and post;
(b) I actually don't know where O2's ownership of my data ends and Carphone Warehouse begins. I get bills from CPW, but I'm on the O2 network.
(c) Operators (and governments) frequently outsource their IT to other companies. If they don't trust themselves to hold my data, why should I trust them?
(d) I know that operators pursue aggressive lock-in strategies, which makes me very wary of falling into the traps
(e) I know that there is a reasonable chance I'll want to churn at some point, and I see no reason to make my decision harder. What happens if Vodafone gets an exclusive on a particular handset I want?
(f) There's no bilateralism in identity management, which points to arrogance and closed behaviour. If operators believe that ID can be provided by third parties as a managed service, then operators should also buy into the concept for inbound ID as well as outbound. I'm not aware of being able to register on a cellular network with a BT or Deutsche Telekom managed identity, much less a Google or Skype ID

Overall, I still think there's scope for providing ID and authentication services as part of the Telco2.0 / two-sided business model concept. But I don't buy the pitch of consumer, massmarket "escrow" of personal data.

(Obviously, I trust the Government even less. I'd much rather have O2 manage my ID than the Home Secretary. SIMs are more secure, cheaper and better-managed than the UK's ridiculous Stalinist ID card system).

Ubiquisys and Intrinsyc - femto-aware Android phones

I first wrote about the desirability of "femto-awareness" in handsets almost a year ago. Since then, there have been various applications on devices (such as ip.access and others' demos) which have harnessed femtozone capabilities.

The announcement yesterday by Ubiquisys and handset integrator Intrinsyc is an interesting one. It changes the "theme" on Android phones when in femto range, based on what the partners call presence.

The exact mechanism for the trigger is a little unclear from the press release - in particular whether the femto is somehow "pushing" notification to the phone app, or if the connection manager is somehow detecting a changing cell ID or similar.

Either way, it fits in well with the general thesis that optimising handsets for use with femtos confers a range of benefits on both vendors and operators.

Reconnecting again!

Hello all

I've been away for the past 3 weeks in India, participating in a cross-country charity drive in a 3-wheel autorickshaw. 

It's been an absolutely fantastic experience & adventure, made even better by the fact that I didn't make or receive a single phone call during that time. My "mobile" experience was a few SMS's exchanged with other the teams participating, plus a couple to my family. I went online at Internet cafes every 3 days or so to do "triage" on the most critical emails, and more importantly update the Rickshaw Run blogs & Facebook pages.

For anyone who never goes "off grid" for more than 15 minutes unless they're on a plane, I'd heartily recommend it. Next time you go on holiday, leave the phone at home.

Anyway - I'm now trying to get back to normal existence again, so one of the first things is to kickstart this blog back to life. There's been quite a lot going on while I've been away - Sun/Oracle, continued economic fallout in the mobile industry, debates about spectrum policy and so on. I'll try and catch up on the key themes.

Also, I'll be in Nice this week at the Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm, at which I'm moderating a panel session on devices. 

I'll thank all the sponsors & other supporters of my India trip in a separate post, as well as giving a flavour of stuff I saw while I was away. But one question to leave you with - how much would you charge to have an entire wall of your house painted with a mobile operator's colours and logo?