T-Mobile USA Inc. is the latest wireless carrier to allow its subscribers to charge purchases of online games, songs and videos to their phone bills.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG announced deals Aug. 2 with several providers of so-called carrier-billing services to offer the capability to customers.
“As the growth in mobile purchasing explodes, we want to be at the forefront in helping customers more easily purchase digital content and services,” Brad Duea, T-Mobile USA senior vice president of value-added services, said in a press release.
T-Mobile expects the Direct Carrier Billing service to be available later this month. It builds on an earlier version the telecommunication company offered to customers through Google Inc.’s Android Market.
The expansion will enable customers to bill purchases made from a Web browser on their computer, smartphone and other devices.
“With this new program, we’re extending the hassle-free payment experience to browser-based purchases from virtually any online source and across a variety of mobile devices, delivering more purchasing power to mobile-centric consumers,” Duea said.
T-Mobile said it is working with Danal Inc.’s BilltoMobile, Boku Inc., OpenMarket Inc., Payfone Inc. and Zong Inc., which is being acquired by eBay Inc., to offer the service to customers.
Such services most commonly are used to enable consumers to pay for features within games, virtual content on social networks and other multimedia content. Other carriers, including AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. offer their own versions of the service.
Aite Group LLC projects carrier billing to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the burgeoning mobile payments industry. The gross dollar volume of U.S. carrier billing transactions could reach $7.6 billion in 2015, up from $600 million in 2010, according to report the Boston-based consulting and research company released in November. The dollar value of the overall U.S. mobile payments industry is expected to reach $214 billion, up from $16 billion in 2010.
