(Photo by Ryan Emberley/Invision for Apple/AP Images)
A month after rolling out carrier billing for iTunes and App Store content with German carrier O2, CNBC reports Apple is expanding the initiative with a similar service in Russia.
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Although carriers have created workarounds in the past, Apple has been slow to support carrier billing for iTunes and App Store purchases so far. That appears to be changing, in Germany at least, as TechCrunch reports Telefonica-owned carrier O2 is officially supported as a payment option within iTunes. O2 customers are said to be able to provide a phone number rather than a credit card to allow billing to be handled through O2 rather than directly with a credit or debit card or other options.
iTunes and App Store payments are then handled through the carrier with the phone bill monthly rather than immediately. This allows subscription services like Apple Music and Netflix to also be handled through carrier billing.
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German Apple Stores have dropped Vodafone and O2 contracts for both iPhones and iPads, offering them only with Deutsche Telekom contracts or SIM-free. The change affects only post-paid contracts: pre-paid SIMs remain available on Vodafone.
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UK mobile carrier O2 is following T-Mobile’s US lead in separating phone and airtime plans.
Unlike Uncontract, O2’s Refresh deal still requires customers to sign up to an airtime contract, but allows greater flexibility by paying off the phone plan at a faster rate, and getting more frequent upgrades.
Customers can reduce the monthly cost of the phone plan by paying an up-front amount, or trading in the old handset, and can pay off the phone plan balance at any time in order to upgrade.
A customer buys a HTC One on O2 Refresh and chooses to pay £17 per month for their Airtime Plan and gets unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. They then choose to pay £20 per month for their Phone Plan and pay £49.99 up front, meaning their combined O2 Refresh tariff costs £37 per month, the same as they would pay on a standard 24 month Pay Monthly contract.
To make it even more affordable to get the latest smartphone, customers can trade in their old mobile for cash using O2 Recycle, getting up to £260 to put towards their new phone.
Refresh is focused on higher-end handsets, and will initially offer a choice of iPhone 5, HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Blackberry Z10 and Samsung Galaxy S3.
The payWall St. Journal is reporting that T-Mobile’s exclusivity contract in Gemany is ending and O2 and Vodafone are picking up the iPhone for the holiday season.
Must be nice…
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