PayCircle

Customer

The person who subscribes to the online magazine, who also happens to be the ISP subscriber.

Merchant

The online magazine server who provides the magazine content.

Payment Service Provider (PSP):

The user's ISP would act as the payment service provider in this scenario.

Pricing Method

(Recurring) Event based pricing. The cost appears, for example, on the monthly telephone bill.

Pricing Range

For a virtual magazine, this would typically be a micro-payment.

Customer Identification

The customer's IP address identifies him to both the merchant and to the PSP. The PSP will authenticate the customer by asking for a PIN. Confirmation is done on the same device as used to access the service, which in this case is the PC.

Point of Sale

The e-mail server offering the weekly or monthly online magazine.

Goods Sold

In this case the good sold is an online magazine subscription, however any digital/ virtual content item could be delivered.

Scenario: Digital Goods- Subscription
Please choose a scenario:
Summary A content provider offers an online magazine. The content of the magazine can be accessed by subscription.

PayCircle Scenarios/Whitepapers

Overview
Via his Internet Service Provider (ISP) an end-user visits an online magazine site and requests a subscription. He is charged a recurring fixed amount for periodic content delivery until he cancels the subscription. The online magazine is delivered periodically (weekly, monthly) by e-mail.
Once the magazine site receives the request it contacts the ISP, which in this scenario is also the Payment Services Provider. The ISP/PSP sets up the subscription charge. The ISP/PSP places a phone call to the user's mobile phone and using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application asks for confirmation to pay the periodic subscription fee. The user need only confirm once (at the time he subscribes to the magazine), and thereafter pays a recurring periodical charge. The user will see an appropriate entry on his monthly ISP bill.

Additional Requirements
Allow for subscription mechanisms: add new messages and/ or new attributes so that the merchant can tell the Payment Services Provider that it is a recurring charge with a given frequency. A mechanism is needed that allows the customer to cancel existing subscriptions and revoke payment authorization.
The confirmation mechanism must support a single confirmation that is kept valid for future (recurring) payments until cancelled by the customer.
Transaction records for such purchases are likely to become a critical business need. Such records will be needed to justify the customer purchase path and obligations for revenue settlements or eventually for dispute settlement.