T-Mobile has begun accepting Bitcoins as payment for pay-as-you-go phone top-ups in Poland, and is even offering a 20 per cent bonus for those ditching cash and credit cards.
The company is one of the country’s largest mobile operators with over 15m customers, and is conducting a three-month trial with Bitcoin in partnership with Warsaw-based payments processor InPay.
As with most large companies which accept the digital currency, T-Mobile will never actually hold any Bitcoins, but instead be paid in local currency złoty by the third party processor after each sale.
Customers opting to pay in Bitcoin will receive 20 per cent more talk-time credit than those who pay in cash.
To pay in Bitcoin a user simply sends the correct amount to T-Mobile and then receives a unique code which can be input into their mobile phone to unlock credit. No personal information on the customer is taken at the point of sale.
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An increasing amount of large retailers and service companies are now accepting Bitcoin as a fast and simple payments system, with lower overhead fees than credit cards.
A host of start-ups in the field offer plug-and-play technology to bring Bitcoin payment support to existing online commerce sites.
In December Microsoft started to accept Bitcoin payments, allowing customers to buy apps, games and videos from online stores with the crypto-currency. That launch was supported by payments processor BitPay.
In February Dell expanded its existing support for Bitcoin from the US to the UK.
The firm is the third largest PC seller in the world with nearly $60 billion (£39 billion) in annual sales.
It began accepting Bitcoins in the US last summer after signing a deal with payments processor Coinbase, and announced this week that it is now rolling-out the feature in the UK and Canada.
Uptake has been strong, according to the retailer: the biggest purchase made with Bitcoin on Dell.com so far was for a high-end PowerEdge server system which cost more than $50,000.
When Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy Note Edge at IFA last year, reaction was mixed. Featuring a curved display on the right-hand side of the handset, the Note Edge was praised for being innovative, but few really saw the point in the feature, rather than innovation for innovation's sake.
Earlier this month, the South Korean giant announced new flagship smartphone the Galaxy S6 Edge at Mobile World Congress (MWC) - now curved on both sides. It looks beautiful and it feels great to hold, but beyond that, it appeared to serve little purpose.
Now Samsung have revealed the inspiration behind the gently curved sides as a very modern affliction - fear of missing out, or FoMo for the uninitiated.
FoMo is defined as a psychological disorder caused by the onward march of technology and the desire to keep constantly connected; manifesting in obsessive checking of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to keep tabs on what everyone else is up to and living in fear of missing a call.
The curved sides of the S6 Edge were born from the notion that answering calls, texting or even glancing at your phone's screen in social situations is impolite, according to research conducted by Samsung.
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While consumers said they knew it was rude to continually check their phones, they felt conflicted between being socially polite and wanting to keep in touch with their loved ones should an urgent situation arise.
During its presentation at MWC in Barcelona, Samsung detailed new feature People Edge, allowing a user to register five contacts with individual colours. When the S6 Edge is placed face down, the curved sides light up with the appropriate colour of the contact who is calling, which Samsung claims allows the owner to check who's trying to get hold of them discreetly without interrupting their conversation.
Owners can touch the heart rate sensor on the phone's rear to reject any incoming calls and trigger the sending of a default reply text, without having to flip the handset over.
Η T-Mobile έχει αρχίσει την αποδοχή των Bitcoins ως πληρωμή για τα pay-as-you-go top-ups στην Πολωνία, και μάλιστα προσφέρει 20 τοις εκατό μπόνους !
Η εταιρεία είναι μία από τις μεγαλύτερες εταιρείες κινητής τηλεφωνίας της χώρας με πάνω από 15εκ πελάτες, και διεξάγει μια τρίμηνη δοκιμή με Bitcoin σε συνεργασία με την εταιρία InPay επεξεργασίας πληρωμών.
Όπως και με τις περισσότερες μεγάλες εταιρείες που θα αποδεχθούν το ψηφιακό νόμισμα, η T-Mobile δεν θα έχει στην κατοχή της όλα τα Bitcoins, αλλά αντ ‘αυτού θα πληρώνεται σε τοπικό νόμισμα ζλότι από τον επεξεργαστή των πληρωμών μετά από κάθε πώληση.
Οι πελάτες που επιλέγουν να πληρώσουν σε Bitcoin θα λάβουν 20% περισσότερο χρόνο ομιλίας πίστωσης από αυτούς που πληρώνουν σε μετρητά.
Για να πληρώσει σε Bitcoin ένας χρήστης στέλνει απλά το σωστό ποσό για την T-Mobile και, στη συνέχεια, λαμβάνει ένα μοναδικό κωδικό που μπορεί να εισαχθεί στο κινητό τηλέφωνο για να ξεκλειδώσει η πίστωση. Καμία προσωπική πληροφορία σχετικά με τον πελάτη δεν λαμβάνεται στο σημείο πώλησης.
