--- title: "What Is Carrier Billing? Direct Carrier Billing for Streaming" description: "Carrier billing charges a streaming subscription to the viewer's mobile phone bill or prepaid balance. See where it works best and what it costs." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/carrier-billing" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/carrier-billing.md" category: "Pricing & billing" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is carrier billing? Carrier billing, or direct carrier billing (DCB), is a payment method that charges a purchase to the customer's mobile phone account. The amount is added to their monthly bill or deducted from their prepaid balance, so no card or bank account is needed. ## How carrier billing works At checkout the viewer chooses to pay by phone. Their number is detected from the mobile network or entered and confirmed with a one-time code. The mobile operator charges the account and passes the money, less its share, to the service, usually through an aggregator that connects to many operators. ## Where it matters Carrier billing matters most where few people hold cards and most mobile accounts are prepaid, which includes much of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. In those markets it can be the difference between a viewer being able to pay and not. It suits small, frequent payments: daily or weekly passes fit a prepaid balance better than a monthly charge. ## The trade-offs - High fees: the operator's share is far larger than a card processor's - Slow settlement: payouts can take weeks or months - Failed renewals: a prepaid balance is often too low on the day - Limits: operators cap how much can be charged per transaction and per month - Integration: each country and operator is a separate agreement ## Carrier billing on RentAnOTT Regional payments are included on every RentAnOTT plan, and specialized billing platforms can be connected through premium integrations, quoted one-time. Ask us on a demo about operator billing in your markets. [See features](https://www.rentanott.com/features). ## Related terms - [Payment gateway](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/payment-gateway) — A payment gateway is the service that securely collects a customer's payment details, sends the transaction to the banks and card networks for approval, and reports the result back to the business. A streaming service uses one to sell subscriptions, rentals and purchases on the web. - [Localized pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/localized-pricing) — Localized pricing is setting a different price for the same streaming plan in each country, in the local currency and at a level that matches local incomes and competing services, instead of converting one global price at the exchange rate. - [Multi-currency billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/multi-currency-billing) — Multi-currency billing is charging customers in their local currency instead of a single currency for everyone. The price is shown, charged and receipted in that currency, and the business receives the funds either in the same currency or converted to its own. - [Transaction fee](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/transaction-fee) — A transaction fee is an amount deducted from each individual sale, as a percentage, a fixed sum or both. On a streaming service it can be charged by the payment provider, by an app store and, on some platforms, by the platform vendor itself. - [Involuntary churn](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/involuntary-churn) — Involuntary churn is the loss of subscribers whose renewal payment failed and was never recovered. They did not choose to cancel; their card expired, was declined or lacked funds, and the subscription lapsed. - [Recurring billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/recurring-billing) — Recurring billing is charging a customer's saved payment method automatically at a fixed interval, such as every month or year, until they cancel. It is the billing mechanism behind every streaming subscription. - [Revenue share](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/revenue-share) — Revenue share is an arrangement in which income from a streaming service is split by percentage between parties, for example between a service and its platform vendor, an app store, a payment provider or the owner of the content. ## Further reading - [Localized pricing for streaming](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/localized-pricing-streaming) - [Localized pricing calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/localized-pricing-calculator) - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing) ## Frequently asked questions ### What does DCB stand for? DCB stands for direct carrier billing. ### How much do mobile operators take? It varies widely by country and operator, and is typically a much larger share than card processing. Get terms for each market before pricing a plan around it. ### Is carrier billing the same as a telecom bundle? No. In a bundle the operator sells your service as part of its own plan. With carrier billing the customer buys from you and the operator only collects the payment. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt