Cingular offers wireless micropayment solution

Cingular Wireless plans to roll out a nationwide wireless micropayment solution called Cingular DirectBill that initially will allow low-cost digital goods such as ringtones to be purchased via wireless phones or the Internet and billed on consumers’ current wireless phone bills.

The carrier plans to allow the purchase of hard goods such as snacks and sodas from vending machines to be made wirelessly in the future.

Although it generally is optimal to be the first wireless carrier out of the gate with any new capability, some carriers could be hesitant regarding wireless micropayments considering mobile commerce’s direction at this point remains unclear.

“There are issues when a carrier acts as a commerce enabler,” said Adam Zawel, program manager, mobile commerce strategies at The Yankee Group. “It is safe to charge for ringtones and there is no significant change to financial risk. When getting into hard goods it is less clear.”

Eventually the carrier expects to allow purchases to be made from wireless application protocol-enabled phones or short messaging service-enabled handsets. Beyond ringtones, the carrier plans to offer digital goods such as games, graphics and MP2s.

Cingular’s new service does not require the use of credit cards; instead purchases are billed to customers’ current phone bills. In addition DirectBill is part of Cingular’s suite of mobile commerce services, which it calls Wireless Wallet.