Google Play Finally Supporting Verizon Wireless Carrier Billing

Google Play now has 675,000 apps and games, which is great, as long as consumers have a way to purchase them.

Over the past two years, Google has been working on making carrier billing an option so that consumers don’t need a credit card in order to buy an application or pay for in-app purchases. Yesterday, Google tweeted that Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to pay for Google Play apps, music and more on their phone bill. The integration is expected to be live “over the coming weeks.”

Verizon represents the final major U.S. carrier to adopt carrier billing in the marketplace. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have all been accepting charges for quite some time.

The addition of Verizon could represent a watershed moment for developers. Not only is it one of the largest U.S. carriers, but it has a huge lineup of Android devices. Likewise, Google Play is notorious for not monetizing as well as Apple’s App Store, or even Amazon’s Appstore, so any additional help will be welcomed by developers.

Many of the excuses to date stem from the fact that Google doesn’t require customers to input a credit card number at start-up, whereas both Apple and Amazon are closely connected to a consumer’s iTunes or online account, which enables essentially one-click or two-click purchases. Of course, carrier billing will appeal to the segment of the market that does not have access to credit.

With the addition of Verizon Wireless, Google Play will have enabled carrier billing with 19 wireless operators around the globe.