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The four UK mobile networks — including Everything Everywhere, O2, Vodafone and 3 UK — agreed to jointly roll-out direct operator billing to make it easier for subscribers to pay for apps and other online goods. The deal has it that the companies will share a billing platform provided by MACH, which will act as an intermediary, making it easy for developers to enable mobile payments. Consumers on their end benefit from the faster transaction process that doesn’t require the use of credit cards or other payment methods. Finally, merchants get real-time charging, flexible pricing points and direct refund capabilities.
The MACH Direct Billing Gateway includes support for Everything Everywhere, Vodafone and 3′s Payforit Version 4 scheme – and O2′s Charge to Mobile platform. In-app billing capabilities will be introduced on the platform soon.
UPDATE: The story we picked up from MobileBusinessBriefing was inaccurate. This is not a joint operator roll-out and operators are NOT sharing a billing platform.
MACH is not providing a billing platform, but a direct operator billing service, the MACH Direct Billing Gateway. Rather, operators are rolling-out Payforit v4, a regulated UK mobile micropayment scheme, created and supported by all of the UK mobile network operators. MACH is interfacing with the billing platforms of the operators to support this through the MACH Direct Billing Gateway.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
