SMS-based banking and other services will rise with Verizon

Starting from November 1 this year US mobile operator Verizon Wireless will be charging its partners $0.03 fee for every mobile terminated (MT) message processed on its network as it advised in the e-mail notification. This notice was distributed by Open Market, Seattle-based division of Amdocs that handles billing issues for Verizon, Sprint Nextel and others.

Brenda Raney, a representative from Verizon Wireless explained that the new commission is necessary to cover the carrier’s overhead in delivering MT messages. The fee was added to current MT-messaging fees and applies to both standard-rate and premium programs, excepting text-giving or free-to-end-user campaigns.

Among those companies that will be charged there are players in the SMS-search space (4Info, Google and ChaCha), media companies (CNN, ESPN and local outlets), mobile-couponing start-ups (Cellfire) as well as banks and other institutions that use the mobile channel as an extension of their online banking services.

Within last several years the sending costs of text messages with Verizon Wireless and other US mobile operators were increased from $0.10 to $0.20.