Mobile operators poised to mediate identity management

Dave Birch writes:

[T]he position of the mobile handset as the basis of practical identity management in the real world is becoming unassailable. [...I]t passes all of the tests: it's portable, has secure storage, has its own keyboard for PIN entry and so on. But [...] it is controlled by the mobile operators, so people who want better identification and authentication to be used by "ordinary" people (ie, not nerds like me) such as governments and banks will end up having to cut a deal with them. But why wouldn't they prefer to pay the operator a penny every time you log on to your home banking if it saves them millions and millions in development costs, operating costs and fraud?

I'm sure Dave's right that our mobile will increasingly become our tool of choice for asserting our identity as we go about our lives—and that the mobile operators are in a fantastic position to take advantage of the massive new markets that will emerge around such identity management.