Verizon Wireless: Messaging plans sans voice

Verizon Wireless announced the availability of three new nationwide messaging plans promising customers unlimited messaging without an accompanying voice plan. According to the operator, the offers are targeted to meet the needs of subscribers who rely on messaging as their primary means of communications. Each Nationwide Messaging plan has unlimited text, IM, picture and video messaging: The Consumer Devices plan ($34.99 per month) includes mobile web access and data usage, with a per-minute voice rate of 40 cents, while both the BlackBerry and PDA/Smartphone plans are $54.99 per month, complete with email, web browsing and data usage as well as per-minute voice rates of 25 cents. Subscribers who sign up for the Nationwide Messaging plan will also have the option of adding email to their accounts for $5.00 more per month. 

"We developed these messaging plans in response to feedback from our customers," said Verizon Wireless vice president of marketing Robert Miller in a prepared statement. "We have a growing number of customers, particularly from the deaf or hard of hearing community, who are using their wireless phones to communicate via messaging." -Jason

For more on Verizon's new messaging plans:
- read this release [1]

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Verizon [2] debuts unlimited smartphone web browsing
Verizon [3]: 20 billion texts sent in February