Microsoft has enabled carrier billing on Windows Store in India with Idea Cellular, allowing Idea subscribers buy Windows phone apps through this payment option. This rollout has been in the works for quite some time now. Vineet Durani, Director- Windows Phone Business Group had told in May that they will be launching operator billing for Windows Store in a few months. Durani had earlier told Medianama that the company was in talks to introduce operator billing in India, since a very small fraction of Windows Phone users have added a credit card to their account. With this launch, the company now claims to be the first smartphone platform to enable carrier billing for app purchases in the country. Note that Nokia Store (now owned by Microsoft) had rolled out carrier billing for telcos like Airtel & Vodafone in May 2012 and Reliance Communications in February 2011. Last month, Microsoft however said that it will be shutting down Nokia Store in the first half of 2015, and migrating users to Opera Store. Developers to receive 70% of revenues From the looks of it, Microsoft has managed to continue offering 70% of revenues to app developers. We've written to Microsoft for a confirmation and will update once we hear back. Durani had earlier mentioned that one of the major issues with carrier billing was the revenue share demanded by the telcos. He wanted the revenue split to be done in such a way that the developers will not be affected at all. They had proposed that the telcos give 70% to the developers and take their cut…
