Trust center based digital signature system!

This model is based on one rule that each participant of the ecosystem does what it can do best. So a telecom operator is responsible in this model only for providing wpki enabled sim to its customers and then guaranteeing mobile network uptime for delivering messages. Banks and financial institutions deal with financial matters and payment techniques. And last but not the least the independent and already established certification authorities provide trust management systems in this model.

This is a many to many model and theoretically sees no restrictions on adding up more and more players in the ecosystem hence proving to be ultimately a global (or locally global) system.


Update: A closer and more description model is presented by Dr. Yaseen of PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) here. 

Telco led digital signature system!

A telecom operator led ecosystem enjoys the fact that telco is sim owner too which is the soul of this system. Due to this very reason the time to market reduces a lot. Turkcell is live example for such a system which is seeing huge success in turkish market.

Integrated certification authorities are needed within telco or with outside contracts. Financial institution can be acquired or a partnership can be established by telco. In case of partnership a trusted certification authority is a must by both parties.

The down side of this model is that telco comes itself into a different business which it knows very little. Furthermore taking banks and governments onboard is also a challenging task for someone not already working in the same area.

Bank led digital signature system!

A bank led digital signature ecosystem is normally fully sponsored by the bank itself. An outer certification authority may not be needed in this model and bank can use an inhouse ca instead. Since service is offered mainly to either already customer or new customers of the same bank hence a third party for trust management normally becomes redundant. Telecom operator takes part in this model as only mobile network provider which is its specialty.

Banks having this ecosystem built can offer unique services based on their existing systems like web and mobile banking. In addition to that bank can offer service platform to application providers who can offer innovative and exciting services to end users in the ecosystem.

Registration process in this model is such that user has to telecom operator franchise to get wpki enabled sim and then to bank branch to get registered in the system. Another approach could be to distribute sim at bank branch.
Bank led model is quick to start with technically but it is a common observation that banks take huge time in getting things going.

Signature ecosystem!

A mobile PKI system constitutes of many components and players to form an ecosystem and main stakeholders of the ecosystem are financial institutions, applications providers, certification authorities and mobile network operators.

Signature is actually done by an application in mobile SIM and private key is also stored in it so it is normally thought that the major player is the mobile network operator who owns the SIM. But it is very important to understand that only financial institutes have license to do financial transactions. This makes it clear that if we are talking about financial transactions using mobile then financial institutions and mobile network operator both are equally important in the ecosystem.

Although financial institutions and mobile network operator can themselves be certification authority but to make the system trusted by third parties it is very good practice to involve trusted and known certificate authorities in the region for managing digital certificates. Involving such certification authorities bring quality and specialization of service in the ecosystem too.

The presence of financial institutions, mobile network operator(s) and one or more certification authorities make it a complete system to run digital signature but fetching of business can not be done without introducing application providers to this ecosystem. These application providers are merchants or service providers who create value for customers by offering exciting products and services and use digital signature ecosystem to run their businesses effectively.