Nokia today announced that consumers can now purchase content from the Ovi Store using their pre-paid credit or cellphone contracts via an integrated SMS service. The service will be billed as part of their monthly bill from their operator or deducted from their pre-paid airtime credit.

“Until now, the only way to purchase from the Ovi Store has been via credit card,” says Yusuf Patel, solutions sales manager at Nokia South Africa.

“This has prevented some consumers from purchasing content as they did not have access to a credit card.  The new service allows consumers to purchase content more easily and quickly as it can be done via an SMS system, something that most people have access to.”

This service is available from three of South Africa’s network operators, MTN, Vodacom and Cell C. The SMS service will be billed according to the cost of the application or content being downloaded which ranges from R9 to R150.

The process requires the consumer to select the content they want to purchase on the Ovi Store via operator billing, with the purchase confirmed automatically via email and SMS, including the costs. Download commences as soon as SMS confirmation has been received. Purchase verification is done in the process by the service provider.

According to Patel being able to purchase content from the Ovi Store this way is not only an advantage for the consumer due to the ease of the process, but it also means that more applications and content will be downloaded creating a larger market for developers in South Africa.

“Nokia have clearly been listening to the needs of local developers,” says Ron Bach, product manager, News24 Mobile.

“Through the introduction of operator billing more users will now visit the Ovi Store, further increasing the opportunity for local developers to earn revenue by producing and selling relevant, high-quality, useful apps and mobile content.”