EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Legislation, Technology, Telecomunications

The explosive growth of mobile trends will most definitely continue, which make mobile the fastest adopted technology in history.

There are more and more mobile connected devices, with various applications and business models; more and more people are using smart phones to access TV and video, which drives even higher mobile data consumption and traffic.

Commission Vice-President, responsible for the EU digital single market A. Ansip in his speech at the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, 22 February 2016) underlined that mobile technologies were becoming a foundation for digital identity with more coverage, more apps and services, longer battery life, faster data speeds, etc.

All this demonstrates, the Commissioner argued, the high degree of comfort people have with using mobile devices, downloading on the move and handling an amazing range of apps. Only a few years ago, apps were seen as something of a novelty. Today, they completely dominate mobile internet usage using a mobile device to execute tasks and make decisions is now the norm. People use online services to pay taxes, claim expenses, buy goods and services, and manage bank accounts…

Mobile and digital issues

Commissioner showed perspectives to “facilitate” digital identity because of the sheer convenience and versatility of mobile. Mobile identity has the potential to give people secure access to all kind of services: banking and payments, commerce and retail, healthcare and transport, as well as energy and government services.

It is a shift from personal identification, i.e. so-called simple authentication turned to personal identity. To make it a reality, the community needs more trust, confidence and security; i.e. people have to be able to manage and authenticate their identities online, safely and conveniently without fear of attack from viruses, malicious code or becoming a victim of data or password theft.

Mobile identity can accommodate several log-on methods, whether a simple password or more complex multi-factor authentication, combining a biometric identity such as a fingerprint with a PIN or challenge question.

Besides, a stronger security is needed: the user shall be in control and in possession of the mobile device for authentication, which must also be protected and operated via a secure and reliable communication channel. Presently, governments and businesses use tens of millions of digital identities.

However, many people today have the same smartphone for work and personal use; hence personal data has to be protected as much as possible. It is people's primary concern when they use technology as trust and confidence are both essential and increasingly important in a modern “smart society”, where personal data is generated and collected by a proliferation of devices and services. Thus, without trust from consumers, mobile devices will not live up to their full potential, i.e. without trusted digital identities, the digital economy cannot work effectively.

Building EU Digital Single Market

Reinforcing trust and confidence in handling data is a fundamental part of the EU's strategy to build a Digital Single Market in Europe, which is aimed at bringing the benefits of digitalization to all: consumers, industry and governments. And again, to achieve that trust shall be established in order to provide people with the digital identity (so-called eIDAS).

The eIDAS regulation in the EU entered into force in 2014; it is one of the major building blocks for achieving trusted cross-border digital transactions, in both the private and public sectors. eIDAS provides a stable legal environment beyond an EU country's borders for electronic identification and trust services that can be applied across Europe.

With an area like e-signatures, the mobile industry could innovate a great deal as secure biometric capabilities improve and evolve.

However, progress in this direction remains slow, argued the Commissioner, who advocated faster uptake of digital identities, signatures and trust services.

Mobile can help to achieve that for customers and for e-government; some countries are very good in an open and digital government services, e.g. in Estonia, where the system already benefits the way people, business and government interact with each other.

There is a lot more that EU countries could do to embrace the challenge of e-government and meet the needs of a growing mobile user base.

According to 2014 data, only one in four public administration websites in the EU is mobile-friendly, while there are 3 mobile broadband subscriptions for every 4 Europeans.

This is why the European Commission will soon present an e-government action plan as part of the Digital Single Market strategy.

Digital Single Market strategy

It will be based on three main principles:

- all interaction with public administrations (and between them) will be done electronically;

- national governments in the EU states must be open, transparent and collaborative;

- there would be no digital barriers between EU public services; otherwise, the EU could not have a fully functioning internal market.

The Digital Single Market provides a strong link between the need for widespread access to high-capacity connectivity and its uptake; this is the basis for digital identity to work.

That includes wireless connections to address important areas such as spectrum, which represents a finite resource needed to be coordinated and managed, both globally and regionally. Coordinated spectrum will be extremely important in the future as a massive asset, especially for a developing area such as mobile identity.

The EU has already started to prepare the ground for future technology advances, both globally and regionally in Europe, with the proposals to allocate new spectrum within the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband services.

This is a major step towards further and better coordination of spectrum; it will allow 4G mobile services to be rolled out more cost-efficiently. However, the EU waits for 5G devices to appear in a couple of years which would become a widespread reality in Europe. 

Digitalisation reflects international agreements, e.g. shown at the recent World Radio communication conference where negotiations on allocating several spectrum bands have been reached. The EU is working closely with international partners to improve cooperation on 5G development; the EU has concluded cooperation agreements with Brazil, South Korea, Japan and China with the discussions with India and the United States.

This is important, as global coordination on spectrum and uptake of new-generation connectivity is needed to make the most of this valuable resource. Everyone can benefit from having an international regulatory system that is adaptive and friendly to innovation.

Mobile devices are fast becoming the access channel of choice for people across the world. As such, the mobile industry has a key part to play in Europe's digital future. The EU Digital Single Market can make the most from the opportunities that it will bring to Europeans.

Reference: Speech 16/390 by Vice-President Ansip at the Mobile World Congress “Mobile as the foundation for digital identity”, Barcelona, 22 February 2016, in:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-16-390_en.htm?locale=en