Five of Italy’s largest operators have joined forces to launch an online payments platform that will allow mobile subscribers to pay for digital goods using their mobile devices. Telecom Italia’s mobile arm TIM, Vodafone Italy, Wind, 3 Italia, PosteMobile and Fastweb will provide digital content providers and their customers with a shared standard that converts mobile phone numbers into so-called “client authentication keys” allowing phones to pay for online digital content and services, reports Dow Jones Newswires. “The joint launch of this initiative opens the door to m-commerce for all. A secure and open system based on a device in extremely widespread use,” the companies said in a joint statement. Some 46.6 million Italian mobile users will be eligible to use the scheme, which will also work via PCs and tablets.

According to research by PwC Advisory, which advised the operators on the initiative, the platform will serve Italians that are reluctance to use credit cards online. Some 90 percent of transactions in Italy are still settled in cash, compared with an EU average of less than 70 percent, the firm said. The global market for mobile payments will be worth approximately US$500 billion by 2014, the operators said in a statement. The Italian scheme is similar to the ‘Buystar’ initiative between operators Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom announced recently in neighbouring France.