Here’s the timeline for the ramp-up of Azure Platform Services billing:
- Jan 4 2010 – CTP accounts can be upgraded to commercial accounts in the countries listed below.
- Feb 1 2010 – Billing starts for upgraded accounts and non-upgraded accounts are disabled with Windows Azure Storage going read-only and no new database creation in SQL Azure.
- Mar 1 2010 – non-upgraded SQL Azure databases will be deleted
- Apr 1 2010 – non-upgraded Windows Azure Storage will be deleted
Available Azure Platform Services billing locations from Jan 2010
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- India
- Italy
- Japan
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
Colinizer 
[…] The Windows Azure Platform continues to be free until Feb 1 2010, during the first billing on-ramp phase. […]
[…] Windows Azure Platform Now Open for Business Filed under: Azure, Cloud Applications, Microsoft — colinizer @ 3:54 There were some bumps along the way today (like the SQL team saying things were ready for purchase, but there were now Buy Now buttons on the portal for several hours afterwards, and the Billing link went either nowhere or to Microsoft Online Services with no Azure services listed), but… it’s now open for business. CTP accounts continue to be free until the end of Jan. See information about the billing on-ramp. […]