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Big deal: Idea to launch carrier billing for Google Play Store apps

(By Nikhil Pahwa and Shashidhar KJ) In what is a significant breakthrough for Google in India, telecom operator Idea Cellular will provide carrier billing services for its customers so that they can pay for apps and content on the Google Play Store, reports Gadgets360. A Google spokesperson confirmed the development with the publication. Carrier billing allows users to pay for digital content (like apps from the Google Play Store) via their telecom operator: in the case of prepaid users, which is over 95% of India's mobile connection base of over a billion, the amount is deducted from their remaining balance. For postpaid user, the amount is added to their bill at the end of the month. This is Idea Cellular's second such deal: It enabled carrier billing on Windows Store in India as far back as December 2014, but the deal was probably not of much consequence since India is largely an Android market. What took Google so long? Probably, that they went after a bigger prize than Idea: MediaNama readers might remember that in 2012, Google had tried to do a similar deal with Airtel for the Play Store, but the deal never materialized, despite reports of the deal almost closing in 2014. Airtel, the largest telecom operator in India, is a tough nut to crack, though it had once integrated with the (then) Nokia Ovi store, and even once with the Samsung store. Google has had it so tough cracking these deals that they went down the offline gift card route to allow people to pay for apps. In that…

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