The Japanese Mobile Network Operator and market leader KDDI has joined the Board of Directors of the OpenID Foundation. KDDI joins Verizon and Deutsche Telekom as global telco giants helping set the direction for OpenID Connect on the platform of choice; the mobile device. KDDI’s leadership comes at an opportune time as the MODRNA Working Group (Mobile Operator Discovery Registration and Authentication) development of a profile of OpenID Connect for MNOs providing identity services for RPs (Relying Parties) is rapidly building consensus on optimizing global interoperability.
KDDI brings practical user experience across a broad range of relying party applications. KDDI’s will leverage OpenID Connect throughout its “AU ID” platform including “AU Smart Pass,” “AU Wallet Market,” as well as a portfolio of settlement services on prepaid cards and credit cards for a user base of over 25 million customers. KDDI’s input, like that of others OIDF members like the GSMA, is critical to building reliable, flexible and scaleable deployments.
KDDI’s announcement was a highlight of the OpenID Foundation Japan Conference, a gathering of almost 500 developers, technologists and business leaders in Tokyo. Experts from Google, Microsoft, Ping Identity and others led an in depth review of the status of each OpenID Foundation working groups and conducted hands on self certification testing workshops. A series of presentations highlighted the linkage of technical protocols with trust frameworks governance rules. OpenID Foundation Japan is planning new initiatives around localization of documentation and a new wave of OpenID Connect self certifications by members large and small in early 2016.
The signers: Don Thibeau, ED of OIDF, and Yasuhide Yamamoto, Executive Officer of KDDI.
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