Payment can refer to the paying or settlement of bills (receiving money from customers), recharging of prepaid balances, and a telecoms service offered to customers - mobile payment or m-payment.
M-payment is a alternative payment method whereby consumers or businesses can pay for goods and services using their mobile phone. There are four common types of m-payment:
- premium SMS-based transactional payments
- direct-to-bill payment
- mobile web payments
- contactless near field communication.
M-payment has been used in developed markets in Europe to pay for services such as parking, m-payment using a direct-to-bill model has utility for business customers in particular since the aggregation of small sums onto a single (telecoms) bill helps avoid the cost of processing expense claims.
Premium SMS is used extensively to pay for content such as ringtones and is a type of "reverse billing".
Closely related to m-payment is Mobile money - a type of mobile service pioneered in developing markets that typically had a less developed banking infrastructure and is now taking off in more mature Western markets. Mobile money enables mobile customers to use the mobile network to remotely transfer money to individuals who do not have bank accounts. It can also be used to pay for goods and services.
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