It does my heart good to see people, or in this case, organizations do as they preach. The GSM Association, or as it is known, the GSMA, is an association of mobile operators and related companies that are devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system.
On Wednesday, the GSMA announced that customers of Bouygues Telecom, Bharti Airtel, Dialog, Du, Etisalat, KT Corp., Orange, Tata and Telstra can simplify their entry to Mobile World Congress. Thanks to a trial at last year’s Mobile World Conference that used NFC badges, in which these companies participated. The trial allows their mobile operator credentials to confirm their identity.
If you use the near field communication (NFC) badge system, you don’t have to worry about giving up your life story. The NFC Badge identity validation process only checks simple information from a mobile operator.
Basically names and telephone numbers are looked at. This information is then combined with an automated photo ID check. This process will confirm the attendee's identity and enable validation of the NFC Badge. All of this can be accomplished before the attendee arrives at the event.
To take advantage of the NFC Badge system, qualified customers of the participating operators listed above need only do the following:
- Register for Mobile World Congress
- Download the GSMA Mobile App
- Log in to the NFC Badge in the app
- Follow the in-app validation instructions
Michael O'Hara, who is chief marketing officer at GSMA said, "At Mobile World Congress we are focused on not only showcasing the latest in mobile technology, but also using it to enhance the attendee experience. By using this new mobile operator identity solution, eligible attendees can pre-validate their NFC Badge and pass through venue access points without having to repeatedly show photo ID. We're excited about the possibilities that this solution opens up and are pleased to be working with leading mobile operators to enable this feature for their customers."
The GSMA worked with Apigee on this project to deliver the additional functionality for both Android and iOS operating systems. Apigee is the company providing the underlying API platform. This enables the secure sharing of operator identity information as well as cross-operator interoperability via the GSMA OneAPI Exchange.
As O’Hara mentioned above, this process should provide the attendees a great convenience. Once they have gone through the registration process which includes that validation steps, the NFC Badge is activated. That means that these people can enter Mobile World Congress at Fira Gran Via without having to present a photo ID.
As you know, iPhones do not have the NFC feature that means that certain considerations need to be made. A limited number of free Cashwrap NFC-enabled cases for iPhone 4, 4s, 5 and 5s models will be available. This will be on a first come first serve basis from Mobile World Congress Supporting Sponsor Incipio.
When a case is attached to an iPhone and with the GSMA Mobile App downloaded and open on the handset, the NFC Badge can be used to enter the event and participate in other NFC Experience activities.
It will be interesting to follow this and see if the Mobile World Congress hits upon any unforeseen problems.
Edited by
Ryan Sartor 
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