Mobistar extends payment for applications via mobile invoice to Google Play

Brussels - Mobistar is the only Belgian mobile provider that allows its customers to pay for their applications or games using their mobile invoice. Last December, Mobistar was already the first to launch this service for Windows Phone users. Today, Mobistar is once again the first in Belgium to launch payment for content on Google Play™ via mobile invoice or prepaid card credit, whether for buying apps, games, music or e-books. This new service will make life much easier for hundreds of thousands of Android™ users in Belgium: from now on, they will no longer need a credit card to buy content on Google Play.

Android smartphones are enjoying great success: according to a study published by the IDC research bureau, 69 % of the smartphones sold in Western Europe during the first quarter of this year use Android. For the same period in 2012, this figure was only 55 %. Another impressive statistic illustrates this progress: every day Google activates 1.5 million new Android devices throughout the world. The Google Play content shop is part of this growth, where around 975,000 applications and games (free or to buy) can now be found. Added to this are the stores Google Play Music™, from where millions of songs can be downloaded, and Google Play Books™, which offers an ample catalogue of e-books.

Up to now, Belgian Android smartphone users who wanted to buy apps, games, music or e-books on Google Play could only do it by entering their credit card number. But only one in three Belgian consumers actually has such a card.

This explains the enormous interest of the new payment method launched today by Mobistar for its customers who use Android (from version 2.2 or Froyo). From now on, these customers will have no obstacle to buying content on Google Play as they can do it via their mobile invoice or via the credit on their prepaid card. This new service, already launched last December by Mobistar on Windows Phone Store (for users of Windows Phone smartphones), is at the same time simple, fast and secure. When they want to buy some content via their mobile invoice on Google Play, Mobistar customers simply have to add a payment method by following the instructions given them by Google. Then, once their Google account has been linked to Mobistar invoicing, they can pay for their content this way every time by entering their Google password.

Customers can consult a list of their multimedia purchases at any time in their customers zone, accessible via the Mobistar website. Every time they make a purchase, they also receive an email containing details of the content downloaded. It should be noted that clients can cancel their purchase during the 15 minutes following the download by clicking the “refund” button. This cancellation works for applications and games but not for music and e-books. Payment by mobile invoice works just as well in 3G as in Wi-Fi. However, if the app or game is more than 50 MB, the download will only work in Wi-Fi, so that the customer does not get any nasty surprises on their invoice or does not use up all their data allowance.

As it is already the case on Windows Phone Store, Google Play now offers a “Mobistar Selection”, thanks to which the customer has direct access to a selection of the best Belgian and international applications developed for Android.

Mobistar is the first provider in Belgium, and also the first within the Orange group, to allow payment for content on Google Play via mobile invoicing.