Smart users in the Philippines may now charge Google Play buys direct to bill

Filipinos subscribed to Smart Telecommunications no longer have to go digging for their credit cards when buying that hit game or app for their Android phones.

Smart, the leading mobile operator in the Philippines, announced today its customers may now make app and in-app purchases in Google Play by charging directly to their bills or deducting from available prepaid credit.

The company commissioned an NTT Docomo subsidiary, net mobile AG, to implement the direct carrier billing.

Sebastian Böhm, senior vice president and executive director of payment solutions of net mobile AG, says: “This project was very important for us, as millions of people will get access to paid content in Google Play for the first time.”

Smart, a unit of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, serves over half of the mobile market in the Philippines, with 53.5 million subscribers on its GSM network as of the end of September.