Google Play users on Vodafone, Airtel and Idea can soon purchase apps, and other services by directly paying from their phone balance. This is made possible through a carrier billing partnership between Google India and telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea, according to a BGR report. MediaNama has written to Google India for a confirmation. Prepaid users constitute for over 95% of users in India, out of the billion existing connections; they will pay directly from prepaid balance. For postpaid users, the amount will be added to their bill at the end of the month or bill cycle. Idea Cellular was the first to strike the deal with Google in May; while note that the service is yet to be rolled out. The partnership was also announced during a GooglePlayTime event in India; users have tweeted about this: https://twitter.com/Anuj_Tandon/status/788650542872596480 Why this is a big deal Firstly: Earlier, Idea had enabled carrier billing on Windows Store in India in December 2014, but the deal is probably of little use as the majority of the Indian market is Android based. Currently the top three vendors in India including Samsung, Micromax, and Lenovo jointly holds 45% of the market. Back in 2012, Google had tried to do a similar deal with Airtel for the Play Store, but the deal never went live. Reports emerged that the deal almost closed in 2014 , but it isn’t clear why the deal broke. Interestingly, Airtel’s Wynk app/service once had carrier billing integrated for in-app purchases, even though Play store…
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