The GSMA, a global organisation that conducts the world's largest exhibition and conference for the mobile ecosystem across different continents — the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) — has selected Regula as an identity verification provider for its event in Barcelona. In 2024 alone, the company’s solutions provided smooth and quick access for more than 100,000 attendees of the congress.
MWC attracts tens of thousands of visitors, including representatives of mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors, and content owners. To ensure everyone's safety, the GSMA has traditionally conducted thorough registration and ID validation processes for each attendee.
Efficiency of the registration process
For many years, the ID validation process was done on-site at the venue, which caused queues and long wait times. With the advent of the pandemic in 2020, and attendance now regularly exceeding 100,000, the GSMA had to find a contactless solution to remove the need to have attendees wait in large numbers to collect badges and have their ID validated.
The ID validation process was done on-site at the venue, which caused queues and long wait times
To address these issues and improve the efficiency of the registration process, the GSMA decided to make it totally remote and digital, so that all attendees could swiftly get access to the venue through the entry gates. Any solution would also need to enable quick and efficient international document recognition, because attendees come from all over the world.
Single-vendor solution by Regula
To achieve their goal, the GSMA ran an extensive competitive tender process to find the best technology solution. Ultimately, they chose a complete, single-vendor solution by Regula which includes Regula Document Reader SDK and Regula Face SDK. Natively integrated, these solutions facilitate a smooth customer journey and rapid onboarding through seamless and secure identity verification, eliminating the possibility of fraud.
This long-term coalition led to a significant enhancement of the visitor roll process
Having successfully piloted Regula products during MWC Barcelona 2021, the GSMA fully transitioned to digital visitor registration and ID validation. After several years of collaboration, this long-term partnership led to a significant enhancement of the visitor registration process, enabling a fast and convenient user experience. Now, Regula Document Reader SDK and Regula Face SDK are easily integrated into the MWC’s existing registration platform for full-fledged production use.
Regula Document Reader SDK
Now, as part of the registration process, an MWC visitor simply uploads their ID on the official website. The identity document is automatically scanned by Regula Document Reader SDK. The solution instantly recognises the document type, reads its data, and verifies its authenticity with multiple cross-checks. Not only does it streamline the verification process (checks are completed in seconds), but it also minimises the chance of missing compromised IDs.
Further, an MWC attendee has the opportunity to provide their selfie, which is rapidly captured by Regula Face SDK for user verification.
Regula’s complete IDV solution
GSMA managed to create a custom, smooth, and seamless roll experience for all MWC attendees
With the industry’s largest and most comprehensive identity document template database, which contains over 13,600 templates from 249 countries and territories, Regula supports the verification of nearly any identity document from any part of the world. Taking into account MWC attendees’ geographical spread, this ability significantly facilitates the registration process.
With Regula’s complete IDV solution, the GSMA managed to create a custom, smooth, and seamless registration experience for all MWC attendees. During the Barcelona event in 2024, Regula Solutions helped to efficiently validate more than 100,000 visitors – all of them registered online beforehand, so there was no need to queue at the venue.
Advanced ID verification technologies
"Our collaboration with GSMA for MWC highlights the power of digital transformation in handling large-scale international events. By integrating our advanced ID verification technologies, not only did we enhance the security and efficiency of the registration process, but also ensured a seamless experience for attendees," says Ihar Kliashchou, Chief Technology Officer at Regula.
“The digital identity verification process has revolutionised the visitor experience, allowing more than 100,000 individuals to register and access the world’s pioneering connectivity event swiftly, safely, and without interruption," states Xavi Casals, Director of Technology, Innovation & Customer Experience at GSMA.
