Verizon Wireless expands messaging plans

Verizon Wireless rolled out a pair of new messaging plans to meet the growing popularity of text, picture and video messaging among its customers. The carrier’s new $15 plan includes 1,500 messages instead of the previous 1,000 messages, and a new $20 plan gives a user 5,000 messages instead of the previous 2,500 for that price. Both plans include unlimited messaging among Verizon Wireless customers.
Any message that bring the user’s total messages above the monthly allotment will cost 10 cents each, while customers without a messaging plan will pay 15 cents for each message sent or received.
Verizon Wireless customers can contact customer care or manage their account online to upgrade their messaging plan; there is no contract extension required.
The moves are notable as Sprint Nextel Corp. also recently tweaked its pricing for messaging plans. Also, Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. all recently increased the cost of their per-message rates from 10 cents to 15 cents.