When Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7, they hadn’t really considered the issue of international transaction fees by having the purchases processed in Singapore. Now Long Zheng, who discovered the charges over at I Started Something, is reporting that the issue has been resolved.
As Zheng points out on his site, the fees are now being processed at Microsoft in North Ryde:
As suspected, the root cause was that Microsoft didn’t have payment processing facilities in a number of regional markets around the world to handle credit card transactions locally. In Australia’s case, these transactions were previously processed in Microsoft’s Asia Pacific hub, Singapore. Instead, now they are processed in Sydney as “MICROSOFT *WIN PHONE NORTH RYDE”.
Hopefully now that Microsoft have established a base for local payments, we might get to see some more Microsoft services rolling out in Australia soon. Zune Pass, anyone?
Nah, who am I kidding. We’ll never get that over here…
[I Started Something – Thanks Michael!]