Facebook gets support for UK mobile operators’ billing service

PanARMENIAN.Net - Just a week after it revealed that it had switched live its mobile payments platform for Facebook users in the U.S., UK and Germany, the carrier billing specialist Oct 1 announced that it has integrated Payforit’s single-click operator billing service for users in the UK, The Next Web reports.

Payforit is a mobile payments scheme that was created by the UK’s five biggest operators: Vodafone, 3, O2, T-Mobile and Orange. With the service going live, developers are able to offer in-app payments in their apps, games and Facebook services, drawing funds directly from the user’s mobile tariff, lowering the barrier to entry and streamlining the payment process.

The carrier billing service was one of the first services to enable payments from mobile sites to be charged direct to the phone bill, regardless of the operator. The newest version of the platform is designed to improve the number of “payment drop-offs” by users, integrating directly with Facebook’s HTML5 mobile site.

It’s a popular platform, and is already being used by ImpulsePay, Gameloft, Electronic Arts and Samsung.

Ray Anderson, Bango CEO believes it’s a “feather in the cap for UK networks”, noting: “As we continue to build connections between Facebook and mobile operators across the world we’re particularly glad to support cross platform approaches like this.”

Last week, Bango said that it had rolled out its technologies within Facebook’s mobile platforms to pave the way for digital content purchases without the need to enter payment details or sending premium rate SMS messages.

Bango’s technology, which is already powering solutions offered by Amazon, RIM (via its BlackBerry App World) and Google Play, deducts funds from a user’s existing mobile plan, keeping transactions secure while making them seamless in their operation.