NEW DELHI: Six mobile operators Tuesday come together to launch Mobile Connect, a GSMA initiative to offer a single and secure mobile-based authentication for consumers accessing to Internet for various needs.

The Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Tata DoComo, Aircel and Telenor subscribers can sign onto respective portals using their unique mobile number and generate OTP (one-time password) to access multiple services online.

“In a recent UK-based study, 68% individuals say that remembering password is a significant problem and an average user has 19 different pass codes for various applications,” GSMA director general Mats Granryd said.

GSMA or GSM Association is top telecom lobby group that represents nearly 800 telecom operators across 220 countries worldwide.

“This is a first-of-its-kind initiative and six telecom operators have come together to facilitate fast online access,” Granryd said, adding that 3 billion mobile users have been enabled with 42 operators in 22 countries till date.

The GSMA’s Mobile Connect platform offers customers to create and manage a universal digital identity via a single login, which according to the telcos’ group is secure and simple.

Initially, the service is available to operator-driven services only and gradually, it will be rolled out for various online services as the group seeks to partner companies across sectors.

Apollo Munich health insurance and online travel firm MakeMyTrip have boarded the Mobile Connect Tuesday, while according to the industry group, other online services firms such as GoIbibo, Trupay, Twigly and Zomoto will use its new digital identity authentication platform.

“The solution has a lot of advantage and it has no language barrier and facilitates digital economy with access to government services,” Vodafone chief executive Sunil Sood said, adding that the telco supports Mobile Connect in India and globally.

It will be a win-win situation for consumers, telcos and the government as the solution seeks rest of India to participate in the digital ecosystem in sync with complete privacy.

Sunil Tandon, head – Non Voice Services at Tata Teleservices believes that the GSMA’s Mobile Connect augers well for the telecom sector to become relevant in the digital space.

Idea Cellular’s chief marketing officer Shashi Shekhar feels that the Mobile Connect platform offers secure digital identity over mobile networks which are secure and one of the biggest enablers of consumer services in the country.

GSMA’s Business-to-Business (B2B) Mobile Connect services have been developed by Times Mobile and BuyHatke.