If you plan on making any purchases on Google playstore including apps, movies, music etc, you have some good news in store. Google has activated carrier billing on play store fore Idea Cellular subscribers. It is for the first time that career billing is available – till now the only options available were debit or a credit card and redeemable play store vouchers. Carrier Billing is available for both, pre-paid as well as post paid subscribers.
Interestingly, neither Google nor Idea Cellular have made any official announcements in this regards . However, a redditor spotted it and shared a screenshot of the billing method now available to purchase apps and games on your Android smartphone.
We tried it ourselves, and confirmed that carrier billing is indeed available. Here are some screenshots.
The caveat to getting the option on Play Store is that you have to be using an Idea sim and be on its cellular internet network. Some users have reported that the option vanishes on Wi-Fi, but when we tested it, we were able to get the carrier billing option even on Wi-Fi Network!
Most credit card users in the country, which itself is less, do not have international payment authorized on their cards, which means paying for apps was not a possibility. Now with the Idea carrier billing, atleast Idea users would be able to make purchases without the need of a card and conversion.
The same can also be used to purchase movies, books and songs on Google’s service which could not be done a while back. The service seems to be working for postpaid users and a few prepaid users as well.
If this could spread to other carrier networks like Airtel and Vodafone, which are the largest two, we could see a huge increase in this payment method. It is similar to having a wallet on your smartphone, except you don’t need to pay for it right away if you’re on postpaid.
This is also excellent news for app developers, as paid app and in-app purchases are bound to increase due to this
This was a solution Indians were eagerly waiting for. Not only does it simplify the billing process, but also complies with RBI’s norms to have a two level transaction authentication system. Although limited to Idea users right now, a future expansion will open doors to other Google Play services only restricted to first world countries.
