Idea Cellular subscribers in India can now pay for Google Play content using their carrier bill

Google has announced today that direct carrier billing, or DCB for short, is coming to India. In collaboration with Idea Cellular, the feature allows people to pay for content in Google Play by way of their phone bill, removing the need for a credit card…

India is the latest place where we’re making direct carrier billing, or DCB, available. Working together with Idea Cellular, we’re helping to make it easier for over 150 million Indians to pay for the content they want on Google Play. In a country where the vast majority of people don’t have access to credit cards, enabling Idea Cellular’s subscribers to charge their Play purchases to their pre- or post-paid phone bills will help bring more people closer to the best apps, games and movies.

Google notes that locales in which it introduces direct carrier billing, there is commonly “tremendous growth in the app ecosystem”. Indonesia is one example, where the number of people who make app and in-app purchases has reportedly quadrupled since the company launched the feature last year.

This is just one more effort Google is using to reach the country with its products and services. Just a few weeks ago, Google announced that it is bringing free high-speed public Wi-Fi to 9 more train stations in India. The company also recently announced that the Google Maps traffic alerts feature was also released in India, not long after the launch of Android Auto.