Bango, the mobile web payments and analytics company, has launched the first wi-fi-enabled operator billing service for Smartphones. 
The new service targets the growing base of Smartphones, such as the Blackberry and iPhone, which often connect to the web via wi-fi, bypassing the mobile network operators. The Bango service allows Smartphone users to pay for content on their phone bills through the same click-to-pay experience, despite being connected outside of the operators network. Without its Wi-fi on-bill payment capability, says Bango, Smartphone users would be redirected to credit card payment processes, leading to lower conversion rates and lost sales for content providers.
Bango claims that the Wi-Fi on-bill payment capability delivers up to 25% more sales, and enables both operators and content providers to capture revenue from this growing segment of their customer base.
We have worked hard to make the content buying experience both easy and trusted by opening up our on-bill payment services to our customers, says Mike Short, VP of Telefnica Europe. An increasing proportion of subscribers are choosing wi-fi connectivity at home or in specific locations, to augment our 3G connectivity. This innovation by Bango, one of our accredited payment intermediaries with Payforit, brings the benefits of tried and trusted operator billing to subscribers, even when they connect over wi-fi.
Steve Crawford, Operations Director of GoSpoken.com, a leading mobile e-book and audio book company, says that over 25% of its customers have a Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone, and that an increasing number are using wi-fi  for the faster connection speeds on offer. By using Bango to deliver a consistent operator payment experience to all our customers, we have seen a marked increase in sales, says Crawford. Conversion rates using operator billing are much higher than using other methods, and easier for our consumers. No other billing solution lets our Smartphone customers simply click to pay.
Research from Gartners shows that the Smartphone market represents the fastest growing mobile phone segment, with 38.1 million smartphones sold worldwide in just the first quarter of 2009.