Smart offers mobile payment system for iTunes

PHILIPPINE Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) unit Smart Communications Inc. has launched a service allowing postpaid subscribers to charge their purchases in Apple Inc.’s App Store, iTunes and Apple Music to their mobile accounts.

In a statement, Smart said the service, backed by BDO Unibank Inc., was dubbed Smart Pay-With-Mobile and called it the first of its kind in the country.

The Smart Pay-With-Mobile allows postpaid subscribers to buy apps, books, games, magazines and movies on the App Store and iTunes, as well as pay for their Apple Music subscription, even without a credit card.

Smart Pay-With-Mobile will initially be available to Smart Postpaid subscribers on Plan 599 and up, as well as Smart Bro subscribers on iPad Plans, the statement read.

“Our goal is to eventually make Smart Pay-With-Mobile available to all our users, including our prepaid subscribers, who for now can rely on Smart Money, an innovative electronic mobile wallet, to purchase Apple content and services even without a credit card,” Ariel P. Fermin, executive vice president and head of consumer business for PLDT and Smart, said in a statement.

Mellissa Limcaoco, head of Smart’s innovation and product development, said in the same statement the move was part of PLDT’s overall strategy to participate in the digital space.

“Mobile users are consuming more and more digital content now, and we are optimistic that Smart Pay-With-Mobile will further increase the Filipino appetite for more mobile content in general—not just streaming videos and music, but also playing mobile games and downloading digital books and magazines,” Limcaoco said.

The expected surge in mobile data activity among subscribers is one of the reasons the company is expanding its network infrastructure this year, revising higher its 2015 capital spending to P43 billion.