Online payments services provider PaymentOne Corp. will soon offer its PhoneBill payment service to merchants affiliated with Mobilians International, a mobile payments and e-commerce firm.

This deal will let Mobilians' merchants reach more than 150 million U.S. consumers, the Herndon, VA-based company said. Consumers will be able to charge their online purchases to existing broadband and landline phone accounts.

"For Mobilians, this landline payment option marks phase 1 of our U.S. operations and systems," said Pragnesh Shah, president/CEO of Mobilians. "Phase 2 will be coming in the months ahead with [the] mobile payment option and our MobiCash product.

"MobiCash is another arrow in the quiver for mobile operators as it relates to mobile commerce and mobile payments," he said. "It is a fast, easy, proven way for mobile carriers to deploy a unique and needed mobile payment option, leveraging their core expertise in billing and collections and Mobilians' expertise in real-time fraud, risk management and merchant acquisition."

Mobilians offers technology that enables payment of e-commerce transactions via mobile phones and mobile phone accounts. Its key product is MobiCash.

"Mobilians provides a ... proven payment method for online e-commerce purchases and does not require the use of any credit/debit cards or special bank accounts," Mr. Shah said.

"Even Paypal is predominantly tied to credit/debit or a bank account, and Google Checkout is completely tied to credit/debit cards," he said.

Research pulled from last year's Javelin Digital Payments Report shows that 80 percent of decisive consumers polled say they would "be more inclined to purchase online if given a safer, more convenient payment method than credit card."

That number was up from 74 percent in 2006 and 61 percent in 2005.

For PaymentOne, the Mobilians' deal is about increasing reach. Founded in 2000, the company claims to manage a network of more than 1,000 telecoms and broadband providers, wireless carriers, content generators such as Time Inc. and Internet service providers including NetZero, United Online and AOL.

PaymentOne's services include non-credit card payment alternatives, macro and micro payments, identity verification and fraud detection, traditional payment processing, global payments and a co-marketing distribution network. The company's PhoneBill service offers retailers access to more than 220 million mobile, broadband and landline accounts.

"Major digital merchants operate on a global basis and recognize the financial value of expanding the payment options they offer consumers," said Brad Singer, executive vice president of PaymentOne, San Jose, CA.

"Mobilians brings deep expertise as an established payment leader in Asia, and our partnership now provides more merchants with the ability to offer their consumers the PhoneBill service, a payment method that has generated over $3 billion," he said.