Billing on Mobile

The idea of creating a channel to market across a large and unified customer base is clearly attractive. The operator-backed Wholesale Application Community is an attempt to achieve this, according to the media read-out, to “rebalance” the domination of Google and Apple in app delivery. WAC appears to have started off on the right lines, by selecting existing capabilities - the Joint Innovation Lab model, and the BONDI standard, for example.

It’s important they continue along these lines. There are a number of market tested APIs which already enable thousands of mobile developers to deliver applications to many millions of consumers and are proven with developers, publishers and operators alike. I hope that those driving the WAC initiative continue adopting existing de facto standards.

I’m going to test the operators’ appetite for deploying proven, standard components by offering-up the Bango Payment APIs, which is the mobile payment interface of choice for developers selling through the mobile browser and, increasingly, as the mechanism for charging from mobile apps.

In the process of making this offer, I’ll keep you posted through this blog to let you know how these conversations progress, and how much the operators in practice do want to leverage existing technology through partnerships.

Step 1 has been to submit this Bango API proposal via the WAC web site,  www.wholesaleappcommunity.com which I did two weeks ago. I’m waiting for a call back, nothing so far. I don’t know if anyone is actually reading any of the applications submitted through this web page, I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back. It should be an interesting conversation and examination of the process.