These systems can work with content owner sites with customers based in the UK,
at present, but not sites that promote sponsors.
A surfer hits your site and wants to look around but doesn't
want pay the $30, or whatever price, just yet, but he wants to pull the pud.
The site will have numurous vidoe clips that he wants to watch.
All the surfer has to do is input his mobile number into a specific box
on the site.
Then an SMS message is sent to him with a PIN number.You the site
owner supplies a list of PIN numbers,or we can generate a random PIN
and he is billed ?3 or ?5,then the customer can get access to the site
and set up a user name and password which will allow him to view
video content.
You stipulate the length of time the customer has to view
a video or videos, 30 mins, 1hour etc.
Once you have a customer authenticated to your site you can simply
use the original authentication process to trigger further mobile billing requests,
so I could join once and then use my username and password
to access more content later, in which case I would not need to go
through the authentication process again.
A nice discrete billing method.
The customer will need to agree to mobile billing.
The system will not know the customers mobile network at the first
stage so a 'ping' system will determine which network the customer is on,
Vodafone, O2 etc.This costs 2 pence per ping.
Then there is the cost of sending the customer the free, to him, text
message containing the PIN number. This costs 4 pence per text sent.
The time taken to integrate the system into your site is approx half
a day and you will be give everyting you need to do this and
you will get technical support,should you need it.
Out-payments on ?3= from ?1.60 and ?5=from ?2.90 per
mobile billed succesfully.
Both price points are after deduction of the costs for the 'ping' service
and the free text sent to the customer.
Obviously the more business you do via this system the greater
the out-payment to you.
This system requires the use of a shared shortcode which can cost
from ?100 - ?200 per month. You pay ?20 per month rental.
You can view your stats 24/7 and you will receive a revenue
statement approx 20 days after month end and payments
will be issued approx 45 days after month end.
The other option is;
A customer will join your web site (be given a username and password)
and when they sign up they will also provide there mobile number,
the WEB site will capture the network and the customer will opt-in to
being charged by mobile micro payments as and when he requests new downloads / products.
Once the initial sign up process has taken place, then all it takes is for
the customer is to ?click? on the product to download / view which
can trigger a billing process.
This would mean that if a customer wants to consume content quickly,
then he can simply click and thus initiate a billing message and download
and can click again, and again, and again.
This is achievable as the authentication process has taken place at
the 1st phase of the process.
To achieve this using the technology the following is suggested.
1.Customer arrives at www.website.com
2.Customer signs up for an account
3.Customer ticks box to agree to mobile billing
4.Customer is asked to ?text in? keyword (e.g. yes) to shortcode 8xxxx
5.By texting in, the webmaster has the mobile number, mobile network
and a text message to confirm for audit purposes the consumer has
agreed to be billed via text message for services.
Using the platform the webmaster is also provided a Reverse Billing ID
? this is used to bill a customer for content further down the line / process
6.The customer goes through the standard sign up process and is given username and password
Once logged into the website, the customer will want to purchase content (e.g. download a video).
Using the above, once a customer clicks to download, a PSMS message can be sent to the handset.
The mobile billing company will send the website owner a delivery receipt,
confirming the message was delivered or not.
The website owner can use the delivery receipts to only provide content
for individuals that have paid.
This can be done by using a status system, once a piece of content
has been requested, the state is ?retrieving payment?,
once the delivery receipt comes back as delivered the status could be changed to something like
?ready for download?, or if the billing failed e.g. no credit available,
the status could be changed to ?disabled due to lack of credit?.
Again the same out-payments dates etc apply and the
cost of the rental of the Shared shortcode is ?20 per month.
There are no charges for keywords as some companies charge
from ?30 per month to ?50 per month for keyword generation
and rental.
The benefits of the systems are a cheaper entry price point for
your customers and you can upsell them once they are buying content.
And you can create an all important data base.
This system will be marketed by me and the technical side will
be run a major mobile billing plc.
Let me have your thoughts and questions I may not have all the
answers but I know a man who has or contact me at
psl@smsnetbilling.co.uk