U.K. carrier biller Bango and Telefónica Digital, the new business division of wireless carrier Telefónica, are looking to make it even easier for consumers to buy from mobile app stores. The companies announced today that they have signed a "Global Framework Agreement" to build an enhanced direct-to-bill payment experience.

The partnership will combine Bango's carrier billing payment experience, which allows consumers to put charges for purchases of digital goods directly on their monthly phone bills, with Telefónica's BlueVia Payment APIs. BlueVia is the global developer platform across Telefónica's global footprint.

The upshot of the deal is that 314 million Telefónica wireless customers worldwide will be connected to the Bango payments platform. They will be able to make digital purchases at app stores and, with a minimal number of clicks, put those purchases on their monthly phone bills.

"At the heart of every great service is first class customer experience and both Bango and BlueVia share the vision that mobile payments must be seamless and low friction for the customer," said Jose Valles, head of BlueVia, in the announcement. "Through this partnership, we are delivering a mobile billing ecosystem that empowers the app store and content owners to achieve mass scale in their business through global reach and a payment method far broader than credit cards."

Direct carrier billing services such as those provided by Bango are useful for consumers who may not have access to credit and debit card accounts. They're especially popular with younger consumers, who also happen to be heavy buyers of gaming and social media content, and consumers in developing economies where there is limited access to financial services.

In addition to providing a simple, secure purchasing mechanism to consumers, Bango offers merchants a number of tools that benefit them by increasing conversion rates. For instance, Bango tools automate the settlement process, making it easier for merchants to get paid for their content, while also providing them with analytics and reporting.

"Telefónica and Bango share a strategic vision to widen access to paid content by standardizing and simplifying operator-billed mobile payments," said Bango CEO Ray Anderson. "BlueVia is a valuable and bold initiative by Telefónica to establish a unified set of billing APIs. We will standardize on BlueVia to connect with Telefónica's 314 million subscribers around the world and look forward to welcoming other operators who join this initiative."

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