Verizon, American Idol reach messaging milestones

Verizon Wireless announced it delivered close to 58 billion text messages in the first quarter of 2008, a record high for the operator. A few weeks back, Verizon said its subscribers sent and received close to 20 billion text messages in the month of February alone, just eight months after the company's first-ever 10 billion-message month.

Not to be outdone, rival AT&T announced a milestone of its own, reporting that this season of television karaoke competition American Idol generated more than 78 million text votes, breaking the previous season's mark of 64.5 million. Over the course of this year's Idol run, which concluded Wednesday when David Cook was crowned champion, AT&T introduced a series of new mobile efforts tied to the program, including trivia, sweepstakes, text chats and vote number reminders. The operator also launched an Idol mobile video campaign in 2007.

For more on Verizon's text total:
- read this release

For more on Idol's text total:
- read this release