New Verizon Tax, Nov. 1

Yes Dear Reader the tax man comes early this year. But then I am not saying it is the Gubmint Revenur that’s taxing you. Its Verizon. They are preparing to apply anywhere from a subpenny to multipenny fee on the third party text messaging that you receive. –

In a move that sets a new and potentially major precedent in the text messaging services market, content and messaging companies are going to have to cough up some dough if they want to deliver their goodies to Verizon Wireless customers.

The nation’s No. 2 carrier has informed partners that it will add a 3-cent fee for every MT (mobile terminated) message processed on its network beginning Nov. 1. MT messages typically include text alerts, interactive voting notifications and SMS search responses.

Verizon hasn’t the guts to come up with the fee themselves to their userbase. So they are going to ‘tax’ the content provider who will then pass on the fee to you, on Verizon ‘One Bill’. But who is fooling who here? The texting consumer still ends up paying. Verizon just wants the cover to say is not them charging the customer when it is.

Look if SMS volume is going up and that requires infrastructure upgrades == $$, then so be it. The customer should pay that and they will. But why not be honest about it? A well placed case and proper background as to the need will usually win over customers so long as it is a appropriate win for both ends of the transaction. But these kind of corporate games are what get Americans mad.

This seemed appropriate. –

[Update] More on the Verizon Tax here. Apparently the text providers did not get any advanced warning either!

Linky.