Broadband adoption is becoming ubiquitous, particularly in Europe, where we had a tough time with Live because we said we need your credit card. In Europe people typically don’t carry credit cards and believe me, our adoption rates in Europe are very, very strong. We’re delighted about that.

Interesting comment from Peter Moore, Microsoft’s Xbox guru, in his interview with Engadget. While traditional credit card usage across Europe is low, mobile phone ownership is high, the majority of which are prepaid. Surprised that Peter is not hooking up with someone like Alphyra, Europes largest cash acceptance network with 125,000 retailers. Alphyra’s network serves as a top-up channel for prepaid mobile operators and are starting to roll out a prepaid credit card offering across Europe. This will remove the last major barrier to ecommerce adoption throughout the region and lead to an uptake in online service offerings such as Xbox live. Interesting times ahead.