VEON Launches Geolocation Gateway, Enabling Proximity-Based Digital Services

VEON announced the launch of the Geolocation Gateway with the first implementation already in place in Uzbekistan.  Building on the global GSMA Open Gateway framework for universal, open APIs for enterprise developers, the Geolocation Gateway will enable a wide range of use cases, from proximity-based commercial services to reducing fraud in financial services, as well as supporting location-based emergency response. 

The Geolocation Gateway, developed by VEON in partnership with Nokia and Infobip, allows applications to determine the location of devices. For financial institutions, the Geolocation Gateway will enable them to determine if an individual is actually present during a transaction such as an ATM withdrawal or a credit card payment.  For commercial companies, it can create growth opportunities by enabling targeted communications to be sent to participating customers, with their consent, based on proximity to an event, restaurant or shop. Most importantly,for emergency services, the Geolocation Gateway will provide authorities the ability to warn individuals in specific locations about impending natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or cyclones. 

"Mobile operators are at the forefront when it comes to enabling economic growth through digitalization, especially in the emerging economies where VEON operates. With the Geolocation Gateway, we are bringing in the latest international standards to provide digitalization at scale in our markets” said Kaan Terzioglu,  VEON Group CEO. “The solutions that our teams have developed and started implementing in Uzbekistan enables the usage of location-based anonymized data in a wide range of digital applications, empowering users, businesses and public sector service providers alike”. 

 “The Open Gateway initiative gives enterprise developers the ability to program networks and connectivity through universal open APIs. This means applications can be developed once and then integrated with every interconnected operator network worldwide, enabling the faster implementation and scaling of digital solutions,” explains GSMA Chief Technology Officer, Alex Sinclair.  “We are excited to see that VEON is taking this initiative to its vibrant markets in Central and South Asia, where a wide range of use cases from disaster response to commercial growth of small and medium-size businesses could be highly relevant, and solutions could potentially be scalable to other mobile operators.” 

The first implementation of Geolocation Gateway is a commercial use case where an Uzbekistan-based country-wide pizza restaurant chain worked with Beeline Uzbekistan and VEON Adtech, both wholly owned subsidiaries of the VEON Group, to grow its business through precision-marketing based on the Geolocation Gateway APIs. The solution will be scaled to other digital operators of the VEON Group and is also available for licensing by other mobile operators.

Developed in accordance with international privacy laws and data protection regulations, Geolocation Gateway provides only anonymized data to third-party service providers while all user-specific data remains held solely by the mobile operator as the trusted party.  For commercial applications, all communication with individuals will be based on the legal permission policies of the jurisdiction. 

Source: VEON media announcement