Today in Shanghai, FindBiometrics and Mobile ID World President Peter O’Neill took the Mobile World Congress stage to moderate the Identity & Personalisation Keynote Session. The first of two FindBiometrics moderated sessions, the event began with an introduction from O’Neill before some of the biggest names in mobility spoke on the topics of identity, security, and network infrastructure.

“Biometrics is just one of the components of the focus today but I am very close to this area, so I’ll provide you with a brief snapshot of what is happening,” said O’Neill in his introduction. “And it is all happening very quickly.”

During his talk, O’Neill gave an overview of the industry, with a focus on mobility.

“Today fingerprint sensors are standard on practically all new smartphones. Not just the flagship models anymore. And you can clearly see how this is rapidly affecting the FinTech industry, but also think about BYOD—bring your own device—and how these biometrically enabled mobile devices will impact enterprise wide security management. Physical, logical, digital and mobile access are blending together right now in the enterprise—and I mean every enterprise. Biometrics are also being used to speed travelers through airport security; facial recognition in schools; thumb scans for my healthclub; iris recognition… behavioral biometrics online; and multimodal authentication on Windows 10 devices.”

The session continued with keynote presentations from Takashi Tanaka, President, KDDI, and Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President, Group CTO and Head of Group Function Technology at Ericsson.

Ewaldsson’s impassioned keynote on the role of identity and security in 5G networks was of particular note. He painted a picture of a world that is only getting more connected.

“I think there are more mobile phones in the world than there are toothbrushes which says something about the success of the technology or something about the health condition of the world,” he joked.  “But it is a very strong development. This year we surpassed 5 billion subscribers; 7.4 billion subscriptions.”

Five years from now, Ewaldsson states, the number of subscriptions will surpass the 9 billion mark. Thanks to its massive reach, GSMA’s Mobile Connect platform is key to securing those connections.

“The GSMA Mobile Connect is now available for close to 3 billion subscribers out there. We have 34 operators on the platform. And it is that great opportunity to be able to have one trusted connectivity that is related to operators all around the world,” he said, urging that the technology increase in its use.

Once again we are seeing the growing connectivity—which promises innovation, communication, and convenience—stocking the demand for security, safety and assured identity. With companies and minds like those we saw onstage today building the next generation of network infrastructure with this safely in mind, it looks like the 5G world will be one in which assurance is built into connected life on every level.

Stay posted to FindBiometrics and Mobile ID World as we continue to bring you news straight from Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)