Mobile payments firm Boku is bringing direct carrier billing to France in partnerships with two of the country’s largest operators, in a move that will give it almost 100% coverage in the region’s mobile market. The agreement with Bouygues Telecom and SFR means that consumers can charge virtual goods and services to their phone bills, in a deal that will give Boku exclusive access to some 32m French customers.
The firm is just the latest to introduce carrier billing and is believed to be an acquisition target for both Google and Apple. Vodafone became the first to announce direct carrier billing for Android in Europe last week. Bouygues and SFR are also preparing to launch a service called Internet + Mobile, which lets customers pay for online goods using their phone number to pay via Boku, reports TechCrunch.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more
