Telenor in partnership with mobile payment company Fortumo have launched direct carrier billing service in their 7th market, Serbia. The two companies already worked together in Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Myanmar.
The launch will enable more than 2 million of Telenor Serbia's customers to make purchases of digital services and games in app stores, by paying through their phone bills.
In Serbia, approximately three times more people have smartphones than credit cards (45% and 15%, respectively). This means the majority of customers accessing online contents are unable to pay for premium services. Carrier billing resolves this problem by enabling online payments for all postpaid and prepaid Telenor subscribers.
Carrier billing has three main benefits over credit cards: reach (more customers have access to the payment method), simplicity (payments are completed in seconds without the need to log in or enter any payment details) and security (no personal details need to be shared, mitigating the problem of online fraud).
Nenad Hasura, Consumer Services Manager. Telenor Serbia
As part of our strategy to become the preferred partner in the digital lives of our customers, we are enabling content that creates high value for them.
Martin Koppel, CEO, and Co-Founder, Fortumo
Giving customers better access to digital services increases their loyalty and reduces churn. Making premium content available through carrier billing is one way to achieve that. Telenor is one of the most innovative telco companies in the world which has tapped this strategy successfully.
