Fortumo, a provider of direct carrier billing, has signed a deal that will bring its services to the subscribers of wireless carriers Telefónica and Telenor using Bluevia payment API from Telefónica Digital. Between those two carriers, Fortumo will now provide developers access to an additional 460 million subscribers in more than 30 countries.

Developers will now be able to offer customers of those carriers the option of paying for their digital content by placing the purchase on their monthly phone bills.

"Developers usually don’t want to do a different billing integration for each mobile operator or store. Fortumo's technology enables them to do one integration and gain billing access to the subscriber base of many mobile operators in 80 countries," said Gerri Kodres, SVP of business development and carrier partnerships at Fortumo. "Bluevia API along with Telefónica's and Telenor's incredibly strong footprint in Latin America, Asia and Europe gives a tremendous boost to our direct billing coverage in parts of the world where mobile payments are seeing the biggest growth in the coming years."

Because carrier billing offers electronic payments to consumers without banking or credit card accounts, it's particularly relevant in markets with higher numbers of unbanked consusmers — markets where Telefonica and Telenor are well established.

Read more about direct carrier billing.