Nokia has issued a statement denying claims that its Ovi Store won't feature carrier billing when it launches in the US later this year.

The claim came in a Reuters article earlier this week, but Nokia has now issued a statement saying that it's still hoping to let US Ovi Store customers pay for apps through their mobile bills:

"Ovi store billing and rollout strategy remains on track. We still plan for both carrier & credit card (options which may roll out in different phases) and are in active discussion with all major operators, including those in the U.S. We’ll provide updates as those plans progress."

Carrier billing is an interesting can of worms when it comes to app stores like Ovi Store. On the one hand, it's much better for consumers, and rival stores Android Market and BlackBerry App World have been criticised for requiring users to use Google Checkout and PayPal respectively.

However, developers are starting to question how operator billing impacts on their revenue share from app stores. A 70:30 split doesn't look as generous if that's 70 per cent of revenues after the operator has taken their share for billing.

Anyway, Ovi Store will inevitably be judged against the simplicity of Apple's billing for the App Store, where it has every iPhone user's credit card details saved from day one.

All eyes will be on those active discussions with carriers in the US and elsewhere.