Why is eKYC important for telcos

MNOs and MVNOs share the objective to transform to cater to the needs of their digital-savvy users. Indeed, now more than ever, consumers are using their mobile devices (including laptops and tablets) – replacing many physical touchpoints with their digital equivalents.

Carving out a space in the market and creating a system that delivers a fully-digital experience via their network is now an objective that Service Providers have to aim at to remain competitive against their competitors. That means rethinking their value proposition to provide a journey focused on the user, adapting their current BSS and OSS with modern cloud-based solutions, and relying on new services that easily guarantee seamlessness, accuracy and speed.

eSIM itself is a step towards catering to these new digital needs – but we believe many blocks come on top of this service to make the experience flawless and excellent for customers. One of them is eKYC, that aims at securing these digital touchpoints with digital onboarding and verification technology. Not only does it bring speed and fluidity of activation of the eSIM subscription, but it also helps MNOs and MVNOs comply with European and International Regulations and fight against eSIM fraud.

It brings speed and fluidity of activation of the eSIM subscription

For telecommunication operators, offering an eKYC process along the user’s activation journey is key to ensuring that both customers and service providers benefit fully from the eSIM offering throughout the subscriber lifecycle.

eKYC (or Know your Costumer, or Digital Onboarding Process) can be performed either from a user’s smartphone or from the self-care app/web of the telco. Once the plan has been selected, the user can scan a selection of identity documents to prove his identity, and performs a user liveness detection. In addition to enhancing the simplicity of the process and speeding up the contract processing, these checks also verify document authenticity and can signal to MNO’s whether new subscribers are who they claim to be and ensure that they have not previously been involved in fraudulent activity.

By combining eKYC services with eSIM, customers can start using mobile services immediately after they complete their application, wherever and whenever they wish. This will enable telecom operators to fully embrace, capture and monetize the new opportunities presented by eSIM.

Hence, digital onboarding processes are crucial to MNOs since it allows them to offer the entirely digitized experiences that their subscribers expect.

It aligns with European & international regulations (GDPR / AML-AFT)

In addition to fluidifying the experiences of customers, the eKYC aligns with major European and international regulations such as the GDPR, AML and AFT.

Among these regulations, the GDPR is arguably the toughest privacy and security law in the world. It imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU. The eKYC’s compliance with GDPR norms therefore implies that the data of MNO customers using an eKYC system is safeguarded.

Secondly, the AML-AFT stands for the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism standard. Hence, the eKYC complies with AML-AFT standards in order to accurately verify official identities for customer due diligence.

In sum, implementing an eKYC is valuable to MNOs as it ensures that they respect all regulatory prerequisite of customer identity check without affecting the user’s onboarding experience.

It helps operators fight against eSIM Fraud

Fraudsters immediately look for security gaps when new technology is introduced to the market. Time is crucial when detecting fraud. Quickly securing security gaps may ultimately save millions, if not billions of dollars which would otherwise be lost to fraud. As such, eSIM is also subject to possible risk management issues connected to the proliferation of the technology.

Subscription fraud, which involves identity theft and fraud, is one of the fastest growing and most prevalent types of fraud in the telecommunication industry. It now accounts for up to 35-40% of all fraud in the industry, totaling $30 billion globally according to CFCA

In order to combat fraud, governments around the world have implemented mandatory SIM card registration policies, which require users to provide personal information and proof of identity documents in order to activate a prepaid SIM card and – more recently – eSIMs.

Due to the strictly digital onboarding process and the digital transmission of eSIM activation data, postal and delivery addresses are becoming obsolete as a data point for fraud prevention while email verification and strong KYC (Know Your Customer) methods are becoming increasingly important. For these reasons, MNOs must imperatively offer digitalized experiences to their customers whilst simultaneously providing a rigid online identity verification system. The eKYC is crucial in ensuring that experience.

Today, new challenges stem from criminals getting their hand on stolen identities on the dark web following massive data breaches to register SIM cards and take over existing accounts. This has presented challenges in document verification and fraud prevention. Incorporating strong eSIM system is the maximum protection MNOs and MVNOs can grant against failure of protection of their user’s digital identity.

OASIS SMART SIM enables mobile operators to create a completely digital eSIM onboarding journey

To enable telecom operators to take full advantage of eSIM opportunities in the Consumer Space, OASIS SMART SIM combines various digital blocks to build a completely digitalized eSIM journey.

With its Consumer Solution, Oasis Smart SIM provides Service Providers with an end-to-end eSIM lifecycle management solution. It is made up of various major components: a GSMA-certified Subscription Manager operated in one of Oasis Smart SIM’s GSMA Certified Data Center along with a complete eSIM Consumer Hub Platform called Digital Connect. It includes an online IF verification or eKYC and a self-care environment that enables Service Providers to offer a white-label app, web interfaces and In-APP eSIM installation (no QR code required). Oasis Smart SIM also offers an entitlement server to onboard companion devices such as eSIM-ready smartwatches or tablets. Discover more clicking here or contact us here.