14 DAY TRIAL // After Sprint, Nextel and Cingular, Verizon Wireless has also announced the increase of the SMS rates, thus the price for sending a text message to USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada (and for receiving from anywhere else) will go from 0.10 $ to 0.15 $ per message. There is a good thing in this entire story: the price for an international text message will remain at the 0.25 $ rate as before.
Although this rise in SMS rates has been announced and it made a lot of people angry, there still are some Verizon customers that can take it easy (for now) because those of you who have a messaging package won't be affected at all by this increase in SMS rates.
This move has followed pretty much the same pattern as in the case of Sprint and Cingular, because yet again, in a very short time span, mobile customers have to deal with a lot of confusion due to the fact that nobody knows exactly if bailing out of a contract with Verizon is possible without having to pay the early termination fee.
As it has been reported, the other mobile carriers that have increased the text messaging rates have dealt with this exact type of situation and have reacted totally different. Sprint has allowed their clients to opt out without paying the ETF, but Cingular has been totally against it from the beginning and as far as it has been reported, no Cingular customer has been able to escape the contract signed with them.
As far as the things have been going until now and from what Verizon customers have said, this mobile carrier won't offer anyone a way out of their contract because - as Verizon says in the terms and conditions for their service - "we can also change the prices and any other conditions in this agreement at anytime by sending you written notice prior to the billing period in which the changes would go into effect. If you choose to use your service after that point, you're accepting the changes".
So don't get a lot of hopes on this one because even if you will go to a Verizon representative and try to make him go on your side and close your contract, this will surely not happen because in case you go for the fact that the increase in SMS rates affects the core of the contract you have signed with them, he will most probably offer to cancel the text messaging without any kind of fee. Then the fun begins.
As the announcement made by Verizon Wireless says the new text messaging rates will be effective beginning with March 1st, if you don't want to get affected by this price increase be sure you subscribe for a messaging package.
After all, if you can't afford 5 $ for 250 messages per month you shouldn't buy a mobile phone in the first place.