Premium Rate Phone and Premium SMS

Revenue Generation via Premium Rate Services

Premium rate services allow business to generate revenue while providing customers with entertainment, content, subscriptions and information. Premium rate phone numbers, and premium sms in the form of reverse billed text messages, allow providers to charge for these products via the customer's phone or mobile bill.

Common uses of premium rate include mobile phone entertainment such as ringtones and MMS downloads, text chat, astrology lines, phone and sms competitions, TV voting lines such as Pop Idol, interactive TV games, scratch-cards and technical helplines.

Premium Rate Information Services

There are countless ways premium rate can be incorporated into promotional and customer support programs and these cover the gamut from phone-in and sms adult content through to technical support lines for software and hardware suppliers.

The adult and new age industries comprehensively use premium rate to supply the needs of customers simultaneously generating a healthy income for the supplier.

Often the cost of providing support for a company that develops software for example can be offset, or even produce an additional source of income, by providing a technical premium rate support line. This ensures that customers seeking support beyond the included purchased period have access to technical help without draining the resources of the supplier. There is the additional benefit that customers are less likely to call the technical support line on a whim and consequently the calls are more likely to be pertinent.

Phone-in and SMS competitions

On-Pack Phone-in and SMS competitions have the dual benefit of enhancing customer involvement and generating revenue which can either cover the costs of the promotion or even create additional income.

Freephone, lo-call, national or premium rate phone lines allow business to tailor a solution that satisfies both promotional and remunerative requirements.

X-on has the technical expertise, infrastructure and capacity to create and handle any level of premium rate competition. Visit the Axontek Premium Rate site for more information.

Content Purchase

Premium rate phone lines and reverse billed SMS are comprehensively used in the Mobile Phone entertainment market with consumers downloading content such as ringtones and logos after having effectively paid for the items by calling an advertised premium rate line, or sending a keyword appropriate to the downloadable item to the advertised mobile number, often a memorable short code number.

Phone and SMS Pay for Product Micro Billing

Premium Rate provides a mechanism for Micro Billing for content and subscriptions. Content providers and entertainment services can employ premium rate phone lines and premium SMS to charge for low value items.

Micro Billing is an ideal way to pay for low value items such as online and magazine subscriptions, event tickets, web services and downloadable software. Please visit the FlexyBill Micro Billing site for more information.

MO and MT Billing

Suppliers using Premium SMS can elect to charge consumer's mobile phone bills in one of 2 methods depending on suitability for the service being provided.

MO (Mobile Originating) Billing is a billing session initiated by an SMS or MMS sent from the consumer's mobile phone. For example, if a consumer downloads a ringtone for £3 they will be charged upon sending the SMS.

MT (Mobile Terminating) Billing is billing based on delivery of an SMS or MMS to the consumer's mobile phone, irrespective of whether a message was sent requesting the MT message. For example, if a consumer subscribes to a monthly ringtone service where they receive a new ringtone each month, the consumer will be billed when the SMS incorporating the ringtone download link is sent to their mobile.

Premium Rate Uses:

	Online Competitions including entry into draws, games and trivia competitions plus the prize information lines
	Text Chat and Chat Lines where participants are able to converse in anonymity
	Dating Services where subscribers are able to converse in anonymity prior to arranging to meet in person
	Downloadable Content Services covering entertainment and product offerings
	Live Teleconferencing Services involving multi-way live conversation
	Pay for Product Micro Billing where consumers pay for content and products via phone billing
	Information Services including astrology, betting tipster and medical advice lines
	Charitable and Fundraising promotion and public subscriptions
	Counselling and Advice lines providing social services

For further information on the X-on Premium Rate please Contact Us
or Call Sales on 0870 345 5577.