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Vodafone is set to introduce carrier billing for the Android Marketplace in the UK and Germany, giving customers the ability to buy apps and have the charges added to their bill or deducted from their prepay credit.
The move is the first time Android smartphone and tablet owners have been able to buy applications without giving Google their credit card details directly.
Operator billing enables those without credit cards to also buy applications and opens the door for the operator billing mechanism to be used for movie rentals, assuming this service ever makes out of the US.
The Vodafone operator billing move will initially be limited to those smartphones bought through Vodafone online or the retail channel.
Everyone else will have to sit tight until their own operator adopts operator billing.
