A year or two ago the concept of paying for someones overseas prepaid mobile phone did not exist. If you wanted to do this you had to wire money via Western Union to your family or friend and trust that they would spend the money on their mobile phone top up. But let's be honest, a lot of people had problems with the fact that the money was not always being used on essential items like it was supposed to! Now we are starting to see the beginnings of an industry that will provide people with a piece of mind, by allowing them to pay for their friends or families prepaid mobile phone service from right here in the US.
The service is being called Mobile Top-Up and works much like a money remittance type of program except that the funds are going instantly to the mobile phone company to pay for the service. The product is usually sold online, but is also starting to be sold in card form at convenience stores. The amount of international mobile phone providers participating in these types of programs are limited right now, but as the concept gains in popularity, more and more are likely to enter the fray.
A few companies I could find on the web offering such a service are:
ARYTY - Company owned by Gorilla Mobile offering top-ups for Philippines mobile carriers and just recently adding India Mobile carriers to their product line.
EZETOP (Offering Top-Ups for just about all Caribbean countries) - Available online or through Blackstone Touch-N-Buy Kiosks
CYBERPLAT - A Mobile Top Up company facilitating mobile top ups throuout Russia, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.
MORE MAGIC - A mobile payment platform provider that just partnered with Vendtek, a provider of automated transaction software company to distribute mobile-top ups through Vendtek's existing base.
IDT INTERNATIONAL MOBILE TOP-UP - While there is no mobile partners clearly listed on their site it appears as if they have some mobile carriers signed up if they are offering this service.
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Note - Here are some interesting articles on mobile payments and value transfer and another white paper from Atos a Mobile payment enabler.
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