Web payforIT could make buying mobile games easier

Mobile firm Dialogue Communications has announced that it's expanding the UK's mobile payment scheme payforIT onto the web, enabling people to buy content, goods and services online, with the money coming off their phone bill.

If that sounds like quite a dry piece of news, well, it is. But there are good implications for mobile gamers.

payforIT is a scheme set up by the UK mobile operators, originally with the aim of providing an easy and trustworthy way to pay for mobile content that would replace the old method: premium SMS. It's already being used on Gameloft's WAP site, amongst others.

Anyway, the new web version of payforIT will allow people to pay for stuff up to the value of £10 online, with the money then being charged to their mobile bill. Here's how it might look:

So any mobile games publisher that signs up with Dialogue (or other companies who offer the service in future) will be able to sell games from their websites without the blizzard of premium SMS messages currently involved.

Quite dry, still, but good news for us gamers!