Apple29 Oct 2015 08:48
Apple Rolls Out Carrier Billing For iTunes, Starting In Germany With O2
Posted yesterday by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden)
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At long last, Apple is adding a way for people to pay for purchases on iTunes beyond credit or debit cards — a move that points to the company sharpening its focus on marketing the iPhone to a wider set of users. Apple — working first with O2/Telefonica in Germany — will now let people pay for items using carrier billing in iTunes.
This means users can now pay for apps and other iTunes purchases by linking up their phone numbers to charge the items to their mobile bills, bypassing the need for a credit or debit card, or potentially even a bank account.
If you are an O2 user in Germany, you can now enter your phone number instead of a card number into your iTunes’ account information. Subsequent purchases from Apple Music, iTunes, the App Store and iBooks are then charged directly to your phone bill, or debited from a prepaid amount that a you have added to the phone if you are not on a contract.
We have contacted Apple directly for a statement, but in the meantime O2, owned by Telefonica, has confirmed that the feature has started to get quietly rolled out across Germany and will be available to all users by next month.
“Telefónica Germany is working with Apple related to carrier billing,” a spokesperson told us in an email. “Payment via the O2 phone bill is now available for Apple Music, iTunes, App Store and iBooks Store Purchases. The service is gradually being rolled out and will be available for all O2 customers (prepaid and postpaid) in Germany by the beginning of November 2015.”
http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/27/apple-finally-rolls-out-carrier-billing-for-itunes-starting-in-germany-with-o2/#.rvbrh4:irWK
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