From December 1, 2022, in Pakistan, the facility to download App from Google Play Store through mobile phones will not be available.
It has been learned that mobile users will not be able to download Google Play Store App services in Pakistan from December 1, 2022, after the State Bank of Pakistan canceled the payment of $34 million to international service providers.
The SBP changed the Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) system, which stopped payments of $34 million on an annual basis by mobile companies to international service providers including Google, Amazon and Meta etc.
Pakistani users will now be forced to download Google and other international apps to pay only through credit card or debit card. The credit card facility is limited to a certain number of users, so a majority of mobile users may miss out on downloading apps from the Google Play Store App.
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and four Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) unanimously wrote a joint letter to the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday requesting SBP to cancel the decision of DCB procedures.
The State Bank of Pakistan had stopped the direct payment option to telecom providers months ago, and suggested that all cases be referred to the State Bank of Pakistan individually for approval. After the ban was imposed, mobile operators complained that they were facing delays in obtaining approvals, causing disruptions in the delivery of critical services.
These services include payments for Office 360, billing management, robotics automation software, fraud management software, and other software developers, and payments related to digital advertising on major information technology platforms.
Direct Carrier Billing is an online mobile payment method in which mobile phone customers pay the purchase bill through their mobile phone carrier instead of paying directly. In 2022, the global size of the direct career bulking market will be USD 54 billion.
New research from Juniper Research, a leading UK provider of market research and business intelligence, shows that global end-user spending on digital goods through carrier billing will exceed $74 billion by 2026.
Direct carrier billing enables mobile payments and interactive services for mobility, ticketing, gaming, charity, media and other digital services. Direct carrier billing is particularly effective for developing countries and underdeveloped countries, where credit cards are not yet widely used. There are still an estimated one billion people in the world who are not regularly connected, or have limited access, to the banking sector.