Bango seeks to remove uncertainty from mobile downloads

Rating: sensible rather than sexy

(by Louise Wells)

Bango has launched what it calls a safe subscription service, seeking to overcome users’ wariness concerning downloads. The new service will ensure that consumers see the terms and conditions, by going to bango.net, before confirmation of any payments so they understand what the service costs and the frequency of the payments.

Bango reasons that this integration with the payment flow in a mobile internet session overcomes the problems of a disparate SMS message based approach where the terms and conditions are separated from the payment experience.

Common experiences are for consumers to find they unwittingly sign up for regular payments or don’t receive the content they paid for because they mistyped a message or their handset could not use the service. Through Bango they can see the details and status of all their active subscriptions and with a single click cancel payments. Also, Bango will alert customers if an application won’t work on their handset.

The Bango subscription service, due to go live in Q4 2006, is part of Bango’s global mobile payment platform so users can pay for content on their phone bill, using PayPal or credit/debit card. Content providers can offer subscription options along with a single one-time charge, one-time payments for defined periods and free access.

The damage done to consumers’ confidence concerning payments and usability is sustained and serious, and is going to take some fixing. Ironically, the one-click-to-stop is probably it’s strongest selling point: the amount of pain that mobile users are prepared to put up with is astonishing, but whether their pain threshold will include adding an extra step into the download process remains to be seen. The real solution is for content providers and network operators to smarten up their acts, encouraged by some regulation with teeth. This is an honourable attempt to patch up a deep wound.