The GSM Association (GSMA) has unveiled a new initiative, 'Big Data for Social Good', that will utilise mobile operators' data capabilities to address humanitarian crises that includes epidemics and natural disasters.
Trials of the programme will start from June in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Myanmar and Thailand. These pilots will be to develop common capabilities to monitor, alert, predict and manage the spread of diseases.
A number of operators including Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Telenor, Vodafone and Zain among others have already supporting the initiative.
"Every year 15 million people die of infectious diseases. This is an attempt to reduce this number and allow aids to be directed to the right places," GSMA director-general Mats Granryd said in his keynote address.
This is part of the Sustainable Development Goals of the association, which were earlier announced in 2016.
The United Nations Foundation is also a supporting partner of this initiative.