How soundwave technology is democratizing access to digital payments for feature-phone dominated India

‘Faceless, Paperless, Cashless’ has been touted as one of the biggest roles of the ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme. This mission was undertaken by the government to realize the vision of digitally-empowered and financially-inclusive developing nations like India, Africa or Pakistan, which was boosted further by the rapid rise in the levels of smartphone ownership, internet penetration, and key government initiatives, among others. While these measures and factors are playing a highly instrumental role in streamlining the economy and pushing the country towards being digital-led and cashless, there are still some major roadblocks in truly achieving this vision.

Lack of infrastructure and awareness are two of the biggest hindrances in this digital empowerment journey. To put this into perspective, having a smartphone and an active internet connection is a prerequisite for almost all the digital payment options available out there. But in a developing nation like India, developing and deploying an infrastructure that ensures network connectivity and coverage is a pressing challenge at present.

Moreover, even though the country has taken giant strides in the adoption of smartphones, it is still feature-phone dominated to a great extent, with over 600 million feature phone users in India. And added to that is the factor of digital illiteracy, with more than 60% of the population belonging to rural and remote areas having next to no access to the avenues or the awareness needed for leveraging this alternative.

Even though this digital-led initiative was undertaken to drive financial inclusion in the country, all these factors pose as impending roadblocks to the same. Considering how the entire premise of digital payments was built around accessibility, convenience, costs, and consolidation, it is obvious that we are yet to truly address these aspects owing to the country’s infrastructural and economic challenges that have rendered it exclusive only to certain segments of the population. While the need for infrastructural development is severe, having a more viable, accessible, cost-effective, convenient, and most importantly—infrastructural-independent ‘sound’ solution is the need of the hour. This is where soundwave technology comes in the picture.

Leveraging data-over-sound for communication is not new. From our verbal conversations to radio to even the inaudible ranges at which other animals and birds communicate in, sound has succeeded in establishing itself as the most convenient and effective mode. Even in the realm of digital applications, sound-based technologies have found several lucrative use-cases such as payments, targeted marketing, and other such proximity-based customer engagement services, etc. However, the digital payments segment stands as one of its biggest beneficiaries.

Soundwave technology has the potential to not only revolutionize the world of payments but also democratize its access to make it beneficial for all. This is because this technology transfers data-over-sound and is thus independent of internet connectivity or smart devices, as opposed to technologies like NFC, QR Code, UPI, etc. Its basic nature makes initiating digital payments through feature phones as easy as making a phone call. Essentially, the payment device on the merchants’ end generates a soundwave that carries secure and encrypted data. Since every phone is equipped with the ability to receive soundwaves, these unique tones are received and translated into analogue signals, responding accordingly to authenticate and complete the initiated transaction.

Furthermore, considering how it does not rely on any physical infrastructure, soundwave technology can be seamlessly integrated with all hardware including ‘smart’ devices like laptops, smartphones, tablets, and even feature phones, P-o-S (Point-of-Sale) terminals, and EDC (Electronic Data Capture) machines. At the same time, it is also perfectly compatible with software applications like the various mobile wallets, e-wallets, and other digital payment platforms out there. Because of this, merchants who wish to accept digital payments do not need to upgrade their existing physical infrastructure, while even those with basic feature phones can make digital payments without having to buy a smart device or source an internet connection.

Even when equipped with all the infrastructure needed to carry out the usual digital payments, security has been one of the biggest apprehensions for even the digitally-aware segments. Amidst such a scenario, this technology leverages the most organic and universal form of energy—sound—to transfer data for assurance of security. Basically, every tone is unique and is not susceptible to getting mixed with other tones or background noises, thereby warranting maximum security and emerging as one of the most secure and instantaneous forms of fiscal transactions.

Additionally, in the largely fragmented and cluttered scenario of the digital payments market, its very essence of making transactions convenient has somewhere been lost. Given the intense competition in this segment, every player is subconsciously becoming processes-centric by laying immense emphasis on instant gratifications, minimal efforts, seamless engagement, etc. While these have undoubtedly helped enhance the end-consumer experience greatly, the human element has gone missing. Amidst this, soundwave technology is bringing the focus back on consumers by helping establish some form of physical interaction during transactions, thus humanizing digital payments while simultaneously ensuring wider scalability of the same.

Financial inclusion is one of the most impending needs in current times, yet has largely been a prerogative for exclusive segments. Therefore, for developing nations like India where people might not even have a bank account but may possess a basic feature phone, the benefits of leveraging this technology are immense. Soundwave technology essentially has the potential to address the need-gaps in the current digital payments ecosystem and democratize access to the cashless modes in a more cost-effective, secure, and humanized manner, subsequently helping bring everyone under the ambit of financial inclusion.

By Kumar Abhishek, CEO and Founder, ToneTag