ARPU Plus, a  provider of value-added services (VAS) and monetization platform solutions across the Middle East and an OTVentures subsidiary company, today announced the launch of T-Pay, an open mobile payment platform in the region that the company claims will revolutionize digital shopping. Through T-Pay, ARPU Plus has built an unique ecosystem for mobile payment, allowing consumers to purchase and pay for digital goods and services from multiple vendors through their mobile telephones, using direct carrier billing; consumers will only have to enter their mobile phone number at the end of their online transaction.

The new system, which was designed, built and is powered by LINK Development, another OTVentures firm and a sister company of ARPU Plus, connects electronic and mobile businesses to their consumers through major mobile carriers. The first phase of the project will provide digital merchants and consumers in the UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Egypt the ability to pay for their digital purchases from any desktop or mobile device through a single, click-to-buy action, using a direct carrier billing system. Major mobile carriers in these three countries are already on board with the project, and T-Pay has plans to roll out the service to other major markets in the region in the next phase.

T-Pay is expected to help businesses offering digital goods and services overcome the setbacks in their growth, mostly due to issues of payment methods or the lack of them. At the moment, consumers who buy digital goods online pay either through credit cards, pre-paid cards or cash on delivery; the latter still being the king of all payments in the region, albeit with high risk and high cost to merchants. With T-Pay, consumers transactions will be added to their monthly mobile telephone bill by their mobile carrier if they have a post-paid number, or will be deducted from their existing account for those who are a pre-paid number.