Amazon is to launch operator billing for its digital content with Telefonica Deutschland, enabling mobile users to charge purchases to their phone account.

According to a statement from mobile payment company Bango, which is providing the enabling technology, the service will be rolled out gradually through to next year on “certain Amazon mobile applications” running on O2 devices in Germany.

Customers will be able to make purchases from the Amazon Appstore — initially from Samsung Galaxy Mini devices — without the need for a credit card.

Amazon and Bango first said they would work together on mobile payment services in December 2011 but the Telefonica deployment is the first commercial launch.

Bango announced a partnership with Deutsche Telekom in August to provide customers in Germany and across Europe with the ability to charge app store purchases to their phone bill.

The company’s operator billing technology already supports purchases made by Deutsche Telekom subscribers in Google Play, Windows Phone Store, BlackBerry World, Facebook and Mozilla’s Firefox Marketplace for smartphones using Firefox OS.