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Report: T-Mobile To Tax Text, Twitter Alerts

  • GigaOm, Thursday, September 16, 2010 1:23 PM
T-Mobile USA is planning to charge an additional fee to businesses that send texts over its network, reports GigaOm. The move will almost certainly impact increasingly popular text message offerings like tweets, bank alerts and sports scores. "Beginning Oct. 1, the carrier reportedly will charge a toll of one-quarter of one cent to businesses for every SMS delivered to its customers," writes GigaOm.

"That's right, the Twitters of the world could soon have to pay to send your texts." In 2008, Verizon told its business partners it would begin charging three cents per text alert, but abandoned the plan after what GigaOm calls "tremendous backlash" from text companies. Meanwhile, "Industry insiders have long expected other carriers to adopt similar charges to increase revenues from the business-to-consumer texts -- a space that is exploding as corporations and social networks discover the value of communicating via text." The first companies to be impacted by the "tax" will likely be Facebook and Twitter, GigaOm suggests.

Read the whole story at GigaOm »

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