PayCircle

Customer

The user who accesses the content offer using a mobile device and pays via his mobile phone bill.

Merchant

The provider of the content offer.

Payment Service Provider (PSP):

Very likely this will be the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) which will settle payments at defined intervals with the merchant and include the content or service charges in the user's phone bill. The MNO provides the infrastructure for ordering, delivery, and payment, including the metering of download volume for digital goods, elapsed time for data sessions and the like.

Pricing Method

Continuous. As it is streaming content, the price is set and the cost is calculated based on the amount of the good or service that the customer uses (typically in minutes or kilobytes or number of levels or lives).

Pricing Range

Typically an amount in the range for aggregated micro-payments, but it could be a quantity large enough for itemized listing and settlement.

Customer Identification

The content provider identifies the customer using the MSISDN of his mobile phone. For authentication, the PSP verifies that the phone with the given MSISDN is involved in the transaction.
This assumes that the account owner is in possession of the phone when the confirmation takes place.

Point of Sale

In this scenario, the video or game Server is the point of sale, but it could be any type of application client / server.

Goods Sold

In this scenario, access to a continuous video stream or game is the good or service offered. The video stream is considered a digital good, while the game is considered an application. The scenario can be adapted to any other continu-ously available online service.

Scenario: Digital Goods - Metered
Please choose a scenario:
Summary A content provider offers a streaming service, such as a video, radio channel or an on-demand game service that is set up specifically for easy mobile access and purchase.

PayCircle Scenarios/Whitepapers

Overview
A content provider offers a streaming service, such as a video, radio channel or an on-demand game service that is set up specifically for easy mobile access and purchase. The customer selects the service and agrees to pay via a mobile payment. The Payment Services Provider initiates the dialogue with the customer's mobile device, asking to confirm the payment with a PIN. The whole transaction is carried out across one channel via SMS, USSD, or voice.
The cost of the transaction is dependent on a metered quantity of the provided service, such as the elapsed time or data volume or the quality of gaming sessions (or lives of game characters, levels…). In some cases mixtures of different metering schemes are used, e.g. combinations of download quantity and time. The fee for accessing the content is added to the user's mobile phone bill.

Features

It requires support for streaming video or continuous games such as virtual villages etc
End-user device may be a mobile device or a wireline PC
It equally applicable for Post-paid and Prepaid subscribers
The consumer is identified by his mobile phone number (MSISDN)
Authorization is provided by the end-user via PIN confirmation

Additional Requirements
To support Prepaid subscribers the download facility has the means to advise the consumer of the estimated cost, and if he agrees to pay, to reserve an appropriate amount of money before delivering the requested data. Should reservations fail, the download facility provides mechanisms to interrupt the delivery of data.
A complete transaction record repository is needed. Such information is neces-sary for bill aggregation, reconciliation, and settlement purposes, but might also be needed for error /dispute settlement asked for by either the merchants or customers.
Customer may want the means to immediately validate or contest delivery or payment sums. A variation on this event may arise when an unhappy or unsatisfied consumer wishes to be refunded or have the actual amount paid, credited or reduced. The merchant or Portal may have to ask the Payment Services Provider to run the process in reverse or to create a purchase credit for an individual customer.