The four leading mobile operators in the US – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon —demonstrated a single sign-on service for smartphones at the Mobile World Congress Americas. Building on the GSMA’s Mobile Connect initiative, the prototype service, Project Verify, enables people to log into an app without the need for a password: the solution verifies users through their phone number, phone account type, SIM card details, IP address, and account tenure.
At Congress, the operators showcased Project Verify in three test apps spanning banking, photography and social media. As well as exploring other use cases, the operators are looking to attract developers to use the technology: apps will also have to choose to work with Verify, while users will need to manually grant apps permission to use Verify. The same mechanism could also be used to support two-factor authentication, in place of an emailed or texted code that can be intercepted.
For more, see the Mobile World Live report: US operators take on authentication, and the Verge report: US carriers introduce Project Verify to replace individual app passwords