Verizon Wireless confronts rivals with unlimited messaging service

Verizon Wireless has stepped into the unlimited messaging arena by including bottomless messaging in a new tier of individual and family plans. The individual plans are $20 more expensive per month than Verizon’s regular plans, and the carrier tacks on an additional $30 per month to its basic family plans for the service. To promote the offering, the carrier offered free activation of the new plans over the weekend and through today, and free online shipping for customers who ordered through the Web.
The single-line America’s Choice Select plans with unlimited messaging start at $60 per month and range as high as $220. Family plans start at $100 per month for two lines and top out at $330 per month for two lines. The plans can accommodate up to five lines and include unlimited text, picture, video and instant messaging to users on any network.
Verizon’s older messaging packages start at $10 per month (per line) for 500 messages, plus unlimited in-network messaging. The old offers topped out at 5,000 out-of-network messages for $20 per month for line.
Comparatively, T-Mobile USA Inc.-which has been in the family-messaging game the longest-offers unlimited messaging for families for an additional $20 per month. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel Corp. offers a $10 unlimited SMS package (per-line charge) and includes unlimited picture and video messaging with its Power Vision packs, which start at $15 per month per line.
Most of the large carriers have recently moved up the price of their a la carte text messages from 10 cents to 15 cents to send and receive.
“The new plans are in response to customers’ increasing demand for greater text messaging options,” said Jim Naughton, Verizon Wireless’ direct of consumer marketing. “Text messaging has moved from being a nice feature to a necessity for many customers. With the Quick Text features on many devices today, more and more professionals are using this service, in addition to the many teenagers who depend on text messaging for fast communications.”
Verizon Wireless reported that its customers sent and received 17.7 billion text messages and more than 353 million picture and video messages during the fourth quarter of 2006.