Direct carrier billing company Centili recently launched its service in Pakistan with the five largest mobile network operators in the country, according to a press release. 

Centili will work with Mobilink, Telenor, Zong, Ufone, and Warid, which have a combined 136 million subscribers in Pakistan. 

Centili cited research in the announcement suggesting that smartphone adoption in the country reached 31 percent in 2015, which means that feature phones still account for a large part of the market and play a significant role in the digital society. 

Experts predict that by 2020 smartphone penetration in Pakistan will reach 51 percent based on 3G/4G expansion alone. At the moment, monthly smartphone sales are averaging 1.5 to 2 million, with 70 percent of all sales favoring Android-based devices. Centili said it believes this is opening the door for the widespread use of Android in-app payments and it believes it can help bridge the gap in digital purchases in a country where just 2.9 percent of the population owns a debit card.