Vodafone dials a new business: KYC services May seek Aadhar database to gradually extend services to mobile companies and possibly banks

Vodafone dials a new business: KYC services

May seek Aadhar database to gradually extend services to mobile companies and possibly banks

For telecom major Vodafone, India, after all, may prove a good place for business. And not just because of the Shome Committee recommendations. The Indian unit of the British firm is all set to foray into a new business: customer authentication services aka Know Your Customer (KYC). Vodafone has been chosen as an authentication service agency (ASA) for rolling out the services as per the directive of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The new business segment is at a nascent stage, but could soon see Vodafone using the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) Aadhar database to thrive on it. ASAs enable intermediaries and transmit authentication requests to the central identity data repository for the UIDAI. An ASA needs to ensure compliance of authentication-related operations to the UIDAI’s standards and specifications. “It is too early to talk about the scaling up of the model and also anticipate the revenues that come from this. But we are looking at various options including extending these authentication services to the banking sector,” said T V Ramachandran, resident director – regulatory affairs & government relations, Vodafone India. The authentication is said to be a key exercise for several service providers, including the banking sector while enrolling a customer. For a mobile company, a customer has to submit one of the 18 selected documents as proof of identity and one of the 33 such documents as proof of address. Similarly, for each of the sectors, there is a unique requirement of documents in order to establish the identity of the customer. However, efforts are now being made to use the data available through the UIDAI’s Aadhar card programme for authentication, ensuring that the customers need not provide any additional document apart from the Aadhar card. “We just need the 12-digit Aadhar number and the fingerprint of the customers. The fingerprints are matched with those available in the UIDAI’s database against the 12-digit Aadhar number of the customer. This reduces the tedious job of going through a bunch of documents of the customers. The entire authentication is completed in one step,” he explained. The model is currently being piloted by Vodafone in issuing SIM cards for its customers. At two of its centres in Hyderabad and Vijayawada, Vodafone would use the Aadhar-based authentication services to issue SIM cards. “With the authentication happening online based on the Aadhar database, the SIM card will be issued instantaneously to the customers. Currently, there are multiple levels of screening of customers’ applications and multiple documents that are attached to the application. Moving to the Aadhar platform will reduce all that burden,” said Ramachandran. In order to access the UIDAI’s database, Vodafone has also been chosen as authentication user agency (AUA). An AUA is a legal entity registered in India that seeks to use Aadhar authentication for its services. An AUA is the principal agency that sends authentication requests to enable its services and business functions. “We will run the pilot for about 15 days with an objective of issuing 3,000 SIM cards. Once that is done, we will roll out the authentication service for Vodafone outlets across the country,” he said.