Spint Nextel Corp. has joined the likes of AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA to allow direct carrier billing through apps purchased on the Android Market, leaving Verizon Wireless as the last major provider not offering the service.
Instead of using credit cards, subscribers of Sprint using the Android platform can pay for apps on their monthly bill. According to Google, a phased rollout will reach all of Sprint’s customers in the next few days.
All Sprint phones using the Android operating system will have the feature except the Samsung Moment and HTC Hero. Sprint and Google are reportedly investigating reasons into why the service is unavailable on the two devices.
Eric Chu, developer ecosystem manager at Android, said that direct carrier billing offers a convenient way to purchase software for regions where credit cards are less common. The option may also lead to less incidents of credit theft and allow developers a more convenient method to make revenue for their apps.
Chu also said that Google is working with other carriers to expand the availability of the service and that new announcements are expected in coming months.
Google recently launched the direct carrier billing services in Japan on NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and SoftBank and is likely to look into other markets such as Europe, where there are currently no such agreements for the Android Market.
The announcement of new carrier billing comes days after Google launched in-app billing, allowing users the option of purchasing digital goods such as game upgrades without having to leave an app. The iOS in-app billing system on Apple has been in operation since 2009.
