Verizon 3-cent ruling great news for mobile marketing

Verizon says no to 3-cent hike

Verizon has been hiitting the news a lot recently. This past week , the US’s No. 2 mobile operator has been the subject of a “will they, won’t they?” question on charging their subscribers for sending text messages.

The plan was to charge $0.03 each, something that caused wide consternation in the mobile industry, particularly for mobile marketers.

That charge would have either doubled or tripled the cost to marketers who send out SMS text messages to opted-in consumers. On the otherhand, Verizon users would get less SPAM. Although Verizon requires approval of all “campaigns”, that rule is widely flouted. Services like Twitter mean that SPAM is an everyday hassle as there’s no cost to send a message.

The news today in Mobile Marketer is that Verizon will not levy the SMS fee on Nov 1 as originally planned differently. The levy could still happen but for the time being, Verizon is continuing to consult with the industry.

In fact, when Verizon does decide to go head, it will fall into line with almost all of the other 500+ operators around the world who do the same. What’s different though is that Verizon charges users to receive texts, something that is completely alien in Europe. It might explain why so few US phone users can receive texts abroad!

So if Verizon decides to go ahead and apply these charges, which it probably will do at some point then the question is whether the operator will change it’s policy for end users receiving texts.

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