A1 Systems announces a successful pilot launch of Mobile Connect in the Republic of Belarus. The company’s solution was introduced simultaneously for subscribers of all three MNOs in the country.
Simple and reliable mutual identification of digital interaction is a cornerstone in the development of digital services. Therefore, starting in 2014, the Mobile Connect initiative is actively promoted by GSMA as one of strategically important projects in telecommunications industry.
By now Mobile Connect has been launched by 70 mobile providers in 38 countries. Over 100 million subscribers use this service. Now subscribers in the Republic of Belarus have joined them.
Mobile Connect is a mobile provider’s service designed for authentication and confirmation of subscriber’s operations in any online and offline services. Now users don’t need to create and memorize separate logins and passwords. All a subscriber has to do is to choose Mobile Connect as a way of access or registration on the site (or give a phone number in case of offline service) and then confirm an operation using in a dialogue mode. .
The A1S Mobile ID solution consists of two process modules – A1S ID Gateway and A1S Authenticator. The A1S Discovery service module was developed to augment the pilot..
Core business logic of the service is realized in the A1S ID Gateway module intended to process requests from online services. The module checks the service provider’s right to request the service, user’s lifecycle and subscription to the service, billing, etc. For this purpose it is integrated with Billing or CRM of communications provider and with electronic signature systems if these have already been introduced. A1S ID Gateway can process requests from service providers both in Server Initiated Mode and Device Initiated Mode
The following types of requests (scope) were implemented in A1S ID Gateway for the pilot project in Belarus: mc_authn (user authentication), mc_authz (authorization, confirmation of individual operations) and mc_identity_phonenumber (transmission of subscriber’s personal data to service provider with mandatory confirmation of this operation by a subscriber).
The second module, A1S Authenticator, is based on another A1 Systems’ solution – multifunctional platform A1S SDP. A1S Authenticator is intended to process operation confirmation requests from A1S ID Gateway. Standard methods suggested by GSMA for Mobile Connect could be used as confirmation methods: SMS+URL (LoA2), USSD (LoA 2), SIM Applet (LoA 2 & 3 & 4), Smartphone Application (LoA 2 & 3 & 4). SIM Applet and Smartphone Application authenticators are supplied to operators as white label products.
The USSD and SMS+URL methods were implemented in A1S Authenticator for the pilot project. In the first case a pop-up network-initiated USSD menu is displayed on subscriber’s telephone where he/she needs to choose a digit meaning consent and confirmation. If SMS+URL is used a subscriber receives an SMS message with a link to special A1S Authenticator’s mobile web page.
A special workgroup has been created for a pilot launch of Mobile Connect in the Republic of Belarus including representatives of all operators, representatives of GSMA and A1 Systems team members. Several updates were made in A1 Systems’ solution to meet the providers’ requirements; the A1S Discovery module was developed and integrated with the MN system of Belarus; a demonstration stand was developed to simulate login (mc_authn) and data autofill (mc_identity_phonenumber), and integration with USSD and SMS centers of all three operators was performed.