eCommerce mobile billing solutions are coming on strong, sparked indirectly by the vital role SMS donations have played in recent disasters such as the Haiti earthquake. The option to charge things via your mobile device and have it automatically added to your wireless statement is something consumers respond to very well, and Verizon is taking steps to make it easier for its subscribers.
Teaming with Danal, Inc., Verizon is integrating the company’s “BilltoMobile” payment service to allow customers to charge online purchases of digital goods directly to their monthly Verizon Wireless bills. Customers will be able to pay for Online content and digital goods that are downloaded and consumed on their personal computers from Danal’s participating network of popular eCommerce merchant partners. A secure connection and integration between Verizon and Danal will provide important security features, such as robust subscriber authentication and fraud protection, among others.
To conduct a transaction, consumers click on the BilltoMobile button during checkout at a participating online Web site and then input their mobile numbers and mobile billing zip codes for subscriber authentication. A text message is then sent to consumers’ mobile phones with a one-time passcode. Once consumers input this passcode into the online checkout window, the transaction is completed. The entire process takes about 15 seconds, and there is no pre-registration or links to credit cards or bank accounts required.
It was only a matter of time before mobile payments went beyond purchasing just mobile content, and rather allowed for purchasing content Online while at a computer or any other connected device. This takes things a step further, and is in the best interest of carriers who get it in on the mobile payment and billing bandwagon, without having to offer additional content or services because of it. Other carriers will likely follow suit.
“Verizon Wireless is combining the convenience of the mobile phone and its strong billing platform to provide their customers with a convenient mobile payment option,” remarked Jim Greenwell, chief executive officer of Danal, Inc. in the United States. “Verizon Wireless is the bellwether service provider in this space, and we see this agreement will likely be the beginning of a change in the industry’s approach to online mobile payments — one that involves ease of use and strong security for subscribers’ mobile payments, as well as robust user controls that will help individual subscribers and families manage their digital purchases and digital lives.”
