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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (21074)	4/3/2002 12:53:09 AM
From: straight life	Respond to of 196634

Verizon follows suit with SMS interoperability By Total Telecom staff 02 April 2002 Largest U.S. operator allows inter-carrier SMS. Verizon Wireless has followed the lead of other U.S. national operators and implemented inter-carrier SMS. It announced Monday that it has used the services of Inphomatch to enable interoperability so that users of Verizon's Mobile Messenger service can send text messages to most other mobile networks in the country. “We've long been a proponent of inter-carrier text-messaging…,” said John Stratton, vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon Wireless. “As the largest wireless carrier we are positioned to make the biggest impact in the growing SMS market.” Until now users have sent messages to one another using email addresses of the form 'phone number@mobile operator.com'. Now they can just enter their correspondent's ten-digit phone number. As with all U.S. carriers, not all of Verizon's subscriber base has phones capable of sending and receiving text messages. Jeff Nelson, spokesperson for the company, said that the number of users with 2-way capable phones are 'probably in double digits in terms of percentages” but could not be more specific. Users can continue to send email from their phones via WAP as well as send SMS from from a fixed email account or from Verizon's SMS site, vtext.com. Refusing to give specific figures, Nelson said that the number of SMS users amongst Verizon's subscriber base was growing but is still a 'nascent' market. The service is rated either via pay as you go charges of $0.02 per message received and $0.10 per message sent, or users can choose from bundled plans including 100 sent or received messages for $2.99 a month ranging to 600 for $7.99 a month. Verizon Wireless is the largest national operator in the U.S. with 29.1 million users though it follows AT&T Wireless, VoiceStream (both Inphomatch customers) and Cingular in announcing SMS interoperability. “Verizon's April launch will complete an enormous part of the interoperability puzzle,” Inphomatch president and CEO Colin Matthews said in a statement. “The domestic text messaging environment is poised for massive market acceleration over the next few months, exactly as we have seen previously in Europe and Asia.” U.S. operators have not yet enabled international SMS on any significant scale though Verizon's Nelson said the carrier would introduce it later this year. totaltele.com