Verizon denies text fee hike imminent

Verizon Wireless is refuting reports it will introduce a 3-cent fee for all mobile-terminated messages delivered across its network. According to an email sent last week by Verizon billing partner OpenMarket, the operator planned to append a 3-cent charge to both standard-rate and premium text programs. But in a subsequent email distributed to the press, Verizon spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson writes "We are currently assessing how to best address the changing messaging marketplace, and are communicating with messaging aggregators, our valued content partners, our technology business partners and, importantly, our friends in the non-profit and public policy arenas. To that end, we recently notified text messaging aggregators--those for-profit companies that provide services to content providers to aggregate and bill for their text messaging programs--that we are exploring ways to offset significantly increased costs for delivering billions upon billions of text messages each month."

According to Nelson, the rate hike outlined in the OpenMarket email "has been mistakenly characterized as a final decision to implement. We don't envision this type of change to in any way affect non-profit organizations or political and advocacy organizations." He adds that Verizon Wireless has not increased the per-message cost to aggregators since introducing its messaging service in 2003, and the carrier has "never envisioned a cost to consumers or content companies, but rather on content aggregators themselves."  In an interview with The New York Times, Nelson maintained Verizon Wireless has not set any specific price for text delivery or a date a new fee might go into effect: "There is nothing imminent, November 1 or any other date."

For more on the Verizon text rebuttal:
- read this New York Times article

Related article:
Verizon reaches messaging milestone