Idea Cellular Partners With Google Play For Carrier Billing

India’s third largest telecom service provider Idea Cellular has partnered with Google Play for direct carrier billings for its in-app and content purchases available on Play Store.

This service allows Idea’s 175 million subscribers to pay for all applications, content and in-app features on Google Play with the cost being directly charged to the subscribers’ existing phone credit post-paid and pre-paid both.

“Idea has been at the forefront of the internet revolution and has built a robust network through an extensive 3G and now 4G rollout. With capabilities to provide wireless broadband services to nearly 880 million Indians, Idea is well poised to take the lead in the way content is served to an increasing army of digital savvy users. This tie up with Google Play creates a vast set of opportunities for Idea subscribers and also builds a secure gateway to the digital world,” said P. Lakshminarayana, chief operating officer, corporate at Idea Cellular.

The subscribers will have to choose the Idea billing option when prompted during the purchase. A nominal convenience charge will be included in the final transaction.

Mike Hayes, director, business development, Android and Chrome Partnerships at Google said, “This collaboration with Idea Cellular is the first time Google Play has offered direct carrier billing in India. Like with lower minimal pricing for apps and pre-paid vouchers, we hope to make it easier for people to pay for the content they want on Google Play. And we also hope that this will give a boost to the developer ecosystem in India, helping developers to grow their businesses on Google Play and connecting to Indian customers.”