Verizon Wireless to raise fees for service-related texts

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

October 10, 2008, 3:23 PM

Verizon Wireless sent an announcement to partner companies this week that it will add a 3¢ fee for Mobile Terminated (MT) messages on the first of November.

There are generally three types of SMS traffic: Mobile Originated/Application Terminated, Application Originated/Mobile Terminated, and Mobile Originated/Mobile Terminated. Each type of SMS exchange is used for different purposes. For example, Mobile Originated/Application Terminated messages are used for text message voting systems.

Verizon's "MT" is a rather broad category, but for the purposes of the 3¢ charge (as first reported by RCR Wireless), it refers to any SMS that is sent from a service to a user, like Amazon's TextBuyIt, where users receive pricing information on products via text message, or Google SMS, where searches are performed over text messages.

The notice Verizon distributed says the fee applies to standard rate and premium programs as stipulated in the Commercial Services agreement with OpenMarket. Of course, this fee is limited to Verizon's partners that work in compliance with FCC, CTIA and MMA guidelines. According to Direct Marketing Association survey in July, text message marketing returns a 70% response rate versus the 30% response rate to e-mail marketing. Marketing professionals around the net seem to share the opinion that this fee will put an early stop on a marketing technique with a lot of promise.

...And text spammers remain unaffected.