Communications and Technology Industry Research

In the last three months alone, Bango (News - Alert) has said it's seen "a four-fold increase in the number of WAP transactions in the U.S."

 

Content providers including Gameloft and Dada Entertainment are selling their content using Bango's mobile billing relationships with AT&T (News - Alert) Mobility, Sprint Nextel and Virgin Mobile.

 

This means over 130 million subscribers on these networks can now pay for mobile content either per download or as a subscription. They charge it to their phone bill using the same browse and buy experience used on the PC Internet and their operator's deck.

 

Using WAP billing, customers can see the price and conditions of purchase before they click to pay. And, because users choose to buy content and then pay in one session, "there is little room for error as compared to the two-step Premium SMS process."

 

"The shift to WAP browse and buy is a response to the recent claims of inappropriate charging of consumers," said Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango.

 

WAP billing has refund levels of less than 0.1 percent, compared to levels approaching 10-20 percent where content is purchased with Premium SMS, Bango officials say, citing to research from iGillot.

 

"The mobile Web market is booming in the U.S. - 65 percent of all new phones purchased are now music-enabled," said Massimiliano Pellegrini, Chief Executive Officer, Dada Entertainment.

 

In August, Web data released by Bango confirmed that mobile Web usage not only is gaining traction in the United States but soon will surpass the United Kingdom, "where consumers have accessed the Internet from phones for years."

 

According to data supplied by Bango officials, the top five countries accessing the mobile Web via Bango in July 2008 are the U.K. at 19.35 percent, the U.S. at 18.88 percent, India at 10.82 percent, South Africa at 8.82 percent and Indonesia at 4.08 percent. 

 

Bango identifies users by country and network of origin. The ranking is produced by measuring the number of user visits to mobile Web sites from each country.

 

"The USA share of the browsing market has grown as an increasing number of phones come with bigger screens and service contracts that include unlimited internet access," said Adam Kerr, VP of Bango North America at Bango, adding that, "We fully expect the U.S. will overtake the U.K. in this ranking as early as this month."

 

Forrester (News - Alert) Research told The Wall Street Journal last month that the number of inquiries it received from businesses and service providers wanting to talk about the mobile Web jumped 40 percent last year.