PPK did an excelent job summarizing operator billing – charging the end user directly on his/hers phone bill. Known as CPA (Content Provider Access) in some countries.
Personally I have quite long experience with this stuff. Both from the carriers side and from the content owners side. In Scandinavian countries we have been blessed with very open and friendly mobile operators allowing content owners to use the infrastructure to charge end users. This has been true for about 11-12 years. During the golden years, operator billing was really golden! Many made good money. You can charge users either through sms or in a web session. You could even use the APIs to automatically get the end users phone number. Great for authentication and one click billing.
Great stuff! But then came WiFi enabled phones…. Currently in Norway and Sweden more than half of all mobile web surfing is done on WiFi. WiFi is by far the biggest carrier in Scandinavia. Isolating only the smartphones, it’s about 75%.
So naturally, the focus on CPA services as payment channel is not that important anymore, knowing that you only cover a small share of the total market and the CPA stuff is quite pricy. Even if the possibility for purchasing physical goods and services was launched not long ago, it did not have a positive impact on volume.
To be honest, I have kind of forgotten the CPA model as a billing option. The reach is declining and new options pop up all over. (Well, SMS is still a very good option with excellent reach! (But still kinda pricy)). Even is stuff is going on with OneAPI I don’t think it is enough to call 2011 the year of operator billing.
HOWEVER:
You should always reflect a bit on PPK’s posts… 🙂 The new parameter in the equation is the operating system. Historically the operating system has not been a part of this billing value chain. Before the iPhone, the OS should only make sure to place and receive calls and sms. iOS represents the first commercially oriented OS. If now Bada, Android and Blackberry are turning down that path too, this can be interesting! The Android consortium can definitely make this happen as it is an arena for all stakeholders. Operator billing regardless of carrier (mobile operator or WiFi), built into the OS will be a killer!
As always; Looking forward to the future!