Viettel has become Vietnam’s first operator to offer to offer direct carrier billing for the Google Play store.
The operator has teamed up with carrier billing company Fortumo to offer carrier billing to its 55 million subscribers.
Both postpaid and prepaid customers will be able to take advantage of the new function.
Announcing the move, the companies said that smartphone penetration in Vietnam has reached 36.2% of all mobile users, but only 1.9% of the population have a credit card and 26.5% have a debit card. This makes the market well-suited to carrier billing services.
“The key reason for Viettel selecting Fortumo was our industry-leading technical platform that is capable of simultaneously handling large app stores as well as leading OTTs,” Fortumo chief business officer Gerri Kodres said.
“Additionally, Fortumo has been preferred choice for carriers in Asia because of our strong focus on the region and local presence.”
In Asia, the operator’s platform is also used by music and streaming providers such as Sony, Alibaba’s UCWeb, Tencent and Huawei.