Mobitel partners Fortumo to launch direct carrier billing in Sri Lanka

Mobitel is partnering Fortumo, a global digital enablement platform, to launch direct carrier billing facility in Sri Lanka. The partnership will facilitate Mobitel subscribers to enjoy premium digital content, pay for games, in-app content and a host of digital services by simply opting purchases to their Post-Paid phone bill or Pre-Paid number.

“Today, we see that the technological growth is shaping customer behaviour which in return demands speed, security and convenience.  Understanding the evolving needs, we partnered with Fortumo to offer our valued customers the opportunity to purchase their favorite digital content at the touch of their fingertips so that they can explore more and experience more,” said Nalin Perera, CEO of Mobitel in a media release.

Fortumo’s DCB solution makes it easy for digital service providers to launch direct carrier billing in a scalable manner. Fortumo manages the checkout flow and localization on behalf of its merchants, accelerating the time-to-market and reducing the amount of development work needed to launch the payment method. The same integration can be used to collect payments from Mobitel and more than 280+ other mobile operators across the world connected to Fortumo’s platform.

“Mobile operators are becoming the central point of entertainment for digital audiences, especially in emerging markets such as Sri Lanka. Low credit card penetration and high smartphone ownership position telcos perfectly to deliver digital content to their subscribers while carrier billing gives service providers the solution monetize that content. We are excited to be working with Mobitel and look forward to growing the partnership,” said Taavi Krusell, VP of Telco Partnerships at Fortumo.

In Sri Lanka, only a small portion of people have credit cards while most own a smartphone. This creates a challenge for digital service providers: while the majority of people can access online content, most are unable to pay for premium services. Carrier billing solves this issue by allowing any user to charge online payments to their phone bill. 

Furthermore, carrier billing does not require users to own or create any accounts, no personal data is collected during the checkout process and payments are completed through a simple 2-step verification process, the release said.