T-Mobile Poland has entered into a partnership with local payment processor InPay S.A, allowing customers to top-up their cellphone credit using bitcoins.
T-Mobile Poland, which currently serves nearly 15.7 million customers, has started a three-month trial period aimed to gauge the popularity of bitcoin payments among Polish prepaid telephone users.
T-Mobile Poland, as well as its subsidiary Heyah, became the country's first mobile operators to embrace the digital currency. T-Mobile further said that customers paying with bitcoins will receive 20% additional calling time.
According to a press release, bitcoin is - most of all - a convenient and fast payment method, and T-Mobile is looking to probe Polish customer’s interest in the technology.
A spokesperson from T-Mobile Poland told CoinDesk:
"Our team is constantly looking for new opportunities, partnerships and cooperations with startups bringing great ideas. One of the reasons behind this initiative was to test how quick and comfortable the top-up process could be. Simplifying it to four taps while keeping high security standards is a significant achievement."
The process of buying a prepaid cellphone credit can be completed in 30 seconds, indicated Lech Wilczyński, CEO and co-founder of InPay. T-Mobile users simply need to visit InPay's dedicated web page and add the relevant bitcoin funds before sending the funds via the QR code provided.
InPay said that it will take the full risk of price fluctuations in order to push bitcoin adoption in the country. On the other hand, T-Mobile will receive all payments in Polish złoty (PLN).
While T-Mobile Poland is the first mobile operator to embrace the digital currency, similar services are already available.
These services include Bitzdrapka, a company that sells mobile top-up codes for mobile operators Orange, Plus, Spelen, T-Mobile and Heyah. Similarly, BitFon operates as a reseller with additional supports of Virgin Mobile, Play and Nju Mobile.
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