In an Australian and probably world first Telstra will be allow use of Windows Phone 7 devices purchase application for their phones and have the cost of the application be added to their telephone bill.

In an Australian first, we’re introducing new integrated billing for the purchase of mobile applications.

This is very similar to the integrated billing that AT&T (see image below) has been testing as reported by Phone Thurrott on his Windows Phone Secrets blog (here).

This has the obvious benefits of having one simple billing source for everything to do with the phone. However this might also result in Bill Shock for some customers as they may not realise they have been actually being billed for all these apps until the end of the month. This is possibly why the Apps of only up $20 can be put on the bill.

Apps purchased can be charged direct to our customer’s bill and will be available for transactions of up to $20

While this might be very convenient for consumers it is not clear if it will be possible for users block this ability for Business that only want to pay for the phone account and not the app purchases for the phone.

For more information see Telstra: Windows Phone 7 – a new challenger arrives

If you just cant wait to get your hand on Windows Phone 7 the you can visit the Portal that has just gone live at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/default.aspx

The web site has a “Buy” link which currently does not have any devices listed… Obviously this is intended to be a single spot where someone can chose what phone is best suited to them.

The site also has a link to some of the Apps that will be available on the phone. Interestingly that Twitter and EBay are definitely going to be available.

Finally there is an extensive How to sections with detail instructions on how to use Windows Phone 7.