Now you can buy apps from the Play Store with your postpaid Idea account

Google has sneakily introduced Carrier Billing in India, which means you can now buy apps from the Play Store with your mobile account as a payment option.

At present carrier billing on Google Play has only been enabled for Idea Postpaid consumers, which is quite disappointing given most people in India still use Pre-paid SIM cards. Before, Carrier billing was introduced, for purchasing apps, games movies from the Play Store you would need a debit or credit card with international transactions enabled.

This move would make it far easier to pay for stuff on the Play Store and in future we expect it to be available for pre-paid customers as well, where the price of the app, game or movie would be deducted from the prepaid account balance. Pretty neat!

Google had earlier made Google Play Gift Cards available through several stores in various denominations, but they never caught on in India. This however, is a much easier way for people to buy apps and games from the Play Store. There are people who use pirated apps just because they don't have a credit/debit card to pay for the app, carrier billing would give them an alternative and in turn reduce app piracy as well.

We hope, Airtel and Vodafone too come onboard with carrier billing on Google Play along with support for prepaid accounts, which most people use in India.

Via: Reddit