Vodafone offers carrier billing for Android

Vodafone has begun rolling out direct operator billing for apps sold through the Android Market, allowing users to charge purchases direct to their phone bill.

Being able to charge Android Market purchases straight to a phone bill or prepay account avoids the user having to enter credit card details. Moreover, billing is often cited as one of the areas where carriers have the upper hand through their relationship with the end users, and can provide value to over the top players.

“Vodafone operator billing extends developers’ reach to the large number of app-buying customers who are unwilling or unable to use credit cards,” Vodafone said in a statement. “In some countries this can be more than 90 per cent of the market.”

The first operations to get carrier billing for Android will be Vodafone UK and Vodafone Germany.