The first market to be connected to Fortumo’s direct carrier billing platform is the Czech Republic with 6 million subscribers of T-Mobile. The partnership aims to enable Fortumo to provide payments to merchants in 12 countries where Deutsche Telekom operates.

“Carrier billing is an increasingly important source of revenue for mobile operators. Fortumo accelerates this growth for carriers by enabling payments with the largest amount of top-tier merchants, ranging from app stores and game developers to digital streaming services and security solution vendors. We are excited to partner with Deutsche Telekom to increase the value of carrier billing for all parties involved,” said Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer at Fortumo.

Carrier billing is now the 3rd most popular payment method for digital gaming transactions, having grown 11% in 2015 and accounting for 14.4% of all online payments, according to the research company SuperDataResearch. As smartphone adoption continues to outpace the coverage of bank-based payments, digital merchants are focusing on carrier billing to generate revenue that cannot be collected with other payment methods.

Direct carrier billing allows users to make payments over a data connection by confirming purchases with one click on their phone. Payments are processed without any additional information required from the user which provides a significant conversion improvement compared to any other online payment method.