Bango Launches Safe Subscriptions for Mobile Content

2 Nov 2006 14:46

Bango has launched a safe subscription service that gives mobileusers world-wide a simple, risk-free way to pay for content fromringtones and videos to news and blogs, on a daily, weekly, monthly orannual basis. The new service makes it easy for consumers to sign upand manage their subscription accounts on the mobile internet and willrestore public confidence in mobile subscription payments. £ There is a solid opportunity for mobile subscription services."With up to 15 percent of wireless revenues in the United Statesalready coming from data services, it makes sense that we'll see arise in mobile subscription services especially as new services makeit easier and safer to enroll, " said Roger Entner, vice president ofwireless telecomm at Ovum, a market research firm. £ "With the new Bango subscription service, users have a clearunderstanding of what they are entering into, know exactly the statusof each subscription and have a simple means of stopping futurepayments," says Ray Anderson, CEO at Bango. "Having a single point ofcontrol and management avoids problems encountered with old-styledisparate SMS subscriptions." £ Mobile subscription revenues suffered over the last 2 years as thepublic started to distrust subscription services. Some consumers foundthey had unwittingly signed up for regular payments or didn't get thecontent they had paid for because they mis-typed a message or theirhandset could not use the service. The safe subscription service fromBango addresses these concerns in a number of important ways. £ Bango ensures that consumers see the terms and conditions beforeconfirmation of any payments so it's clear how much the service costsand the frequency of the payments. The integration with the paymentflow in a mobile internet session overcomes the problems of adisparate SMS message based approach where the terms and conditionsare separated from the payment experience. £ Consumers also have an easy way of controlling theirsubscriptions. By visiting bango.net on their mobile phone, orclicking on a link from the content provider's mobile site, theyclearly see the details and status of all their active subscriptions -with a one-click option to cancel future payments. This single pointof control means consumers do not need to remember what they havesigned up for to or how to stop the subscriptions. £ The user needs an internet enabled handset to sign-up (nearly allnew phones are internet enabled). The mobile internet site offeringthe services detects handset capabilities so they only offer contentknown to work on the user's handset. This approach means consumers arenot likely to subscribe for content they cannot access or use. £ The new Bango subscription service, due to go live in Q4 2006, ispart of Bango's global mobile payment platform so users can pay forcontent on their phone bill, using PayPal or credit/debit card.Content providers can offer subscription options along with a singleone-time charge, one-time payments for defined periods and freeaccess. £ About Bango £ Bango has developed and deployed a unique open, globalinfrastructure platform that enables content providers to market, selland deliver their products and services directly to mobile phone userson all mobile networks using the mobile Internet. This"direct-to-consumer" approach operates alongside the operator's mobilecontent portals. Leading mobile operators including Cingular Wireless,Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica and O2 work with Bango to accelerate thegrowth of their "direct-to-consumer" business. £ The Bango platform has given phone subscribers around the worldgreater access to third-party content. User in more than 130 countriesand over 250 operators pay for mobile content using Bango. Bango,based in New York and Cambridge (UK), is quoted on the London StockExchange (AIM:BGO). For further information, go to www.bango.com. Copyright Business Wire 2006