Philippine Phone Provider Brings Pay By Mobile For iTunes Purchases

The Philippine’s top wireless operator has just made it much easier for Apple users to make purchases on their devices. Smart Communications announced its new “Pay-With-Mobile” service on Friday (Feb. 13), a world’s first, the company says.

The Pay-With-Mobile payment option allows Apple users to purchase apps and in-app products like books, music, games and movies from the App Store or Apple’s iTunes, and have those purchases be billed to customers’ monthly bills or prepaid credit accounts.

According to Charles Lim, Smart Communications’ Executive Vice President and head of its Wireless Consumer Division, the new service will allow subscribers with Apple devices to easily make purchases even without a credit card.

“Smart understands that not everyone owns a credit card, but that shouldn’t stop people from realizing the full potential of their mobile devices,” he said. “This is why we have worked hard to bring this groundbreaking service to Filipino users, which we believe will further revolutionize the way they enjoy their favorite lifestyle apps and content on their devices.”

To sign up, subscribers have to register for a Pay-With-Mobile number through their Apple accounts. Once that number is received, customers use that number as a MasterCard number, to be filled in within their Apple ID Account Settings on the App Store of iTunes.

Apple users will receive a text message after every successful app or in-app purchase. A 15 percent surcharge will be added in addition to Apple’s prices; this, Smart Communications says, is to account for tax and foreign exchange rates.

Reports say the service will be fully available to Smart customers by Wednesday, Feb. 18, at first to Smart’s Smart and Talk ‘N Text brand subscribers, and later on to Smart’s Sun Cellular users.

Smart partnered with MasterCard Worldwide in 2010 in efforts to strengthen Smart’s mobile payment offerings. Despite a focus on credit cards, Smart’s Pay-With-Mobile venture realizes the unique needs of the under- and un-banked in the Philippines. Recent research from re/code found that mobile payments are likely to cause a major disruption in the banking industry across the globe this year, largely due to the estimated 2.5 billion individuals that do not use a bank.