IT Wallet, mobile phone licence trial expands to 250,000 people: here are the next steps

After the 50,000 citizens involved in the testing since 23 October, the second stage in the process towards the adoption in 2025 of the IT Wallet, the Italian digital wallet system that will go live next year, is being launched today. The number of Italians enabled to the new digital wallet will now increase to 250,000 citizens; on 20 November, the third phase (test enablement for one million Italians) will start, and on 4 December the final version will be released to all, with full functionality, for all users who want to use it. By 2025, the transition from Spid and Cie to It Wallet, which will become the single national digital identity for all citizens, will be completed. By 2026 it will be integrated into the European Digital Wallet or EUDI Wallet, which will allow It Wallet to be used in other EU countries as well.

From today, therefore, the audience is broadened. With the digital wallet, it will in practice be possible to have a whole series of documents directly available on the smartphone: digital versions of the health card, the driving licence and the European Disability Card. The three digital documents can be used instead of the corresponding physical documents and specifically, in this first phase, only for live verification contexts. In particular, the driving licence will only be able to be used in Italy to prove that one is qualified to drive in the event of police checks; the health card - European Health Insurance Card will allow access to the services provided by the National Health Service; the European Disability Card will have the same uses as the physical document version.

The Documents on IO functionality has been tested in recent months by a technical evaluation group, composed of insiders, which assessed its general effectiveness. As of 23 October, the opportunity to access documents was gradually extended to Italian citizens, thus giving full legal validity to digital versions of documents.

Only from next year (with a timetable still being defined) will there be the leap towards the real 'Italian IT Wallet system', consisting of the public wallet for access to the digital services of the public administration and to all 'verifiable' documents (to the passport the health card and the disability card should be joined by the electoral card and later by other documents such as qualifications), and by a series of wallets made available by private providers (think of banks), probably on the basis of compulsory accreditation by the Agency for Digital Italy (Agid). In 2025, the online use of uploaded documents should also be available to everyone. Access will be tied to the use of the electronic identity card (Cie) for most services, those requiring a higher level of security, and of the Spid (in addition to the Cie itself) for those with a lower level of criticality.