Mobile Marketing Association to respond to concern over SMS fee hike

By Giselle Tsirulnik

October 20, 2008

Bring on the analytics

The Mobile Marketing Association will host a members' forum for discussion around concerns relating to business models for Standard and Premium Rate SMS text messages.

The MMA made this announcement shortly this publication broke news of wireless carrier Verizon Wireless' proposed 3-cent rate hike on text messages from marketers to opted-in consumers in its subscriber database. The MMA will facilitate and host a working session called "How to Cultivate A Successful Mobile Marketing Ecosystem in the United States."

"MMA received a large number of inquiries and that is why we issued a statement to invite members to engage in a dialogue," said Laura Marriott, president of the MMA, Denver, CO. "The output would be recommendations for carriers, aggregators and other parts of the mobile ecosystem."

The session will discuss ideas on how to foster growth, identify opportunities and recommend options for the industry to consider as it evolves over the coming years.

A major goal of the session will be to develop viable business model recommendations over the next one, three and five years for the industry collectively to consider in creating a healthy and sustainable mobile channel, the email to MMA members said.

The MMA will shortly send an agenda as well as outline the rules for participation in the session.

The organization will also provide a summary of the issue as well as key points to consider in its discussions from each part of the ecosystem prior to the call.

The MMA is currently evaluating conference bridge options so that it can support the large number of interested members.

This forum hosted by the MMA is basically the organization's response to the worries that marketers have had due to Verizon's proposed 3-cent SMS rate hike (see story).

"I believe Verizon has missed an opportunity to articulate clearly the specific reasons for this pricing change and stimulate a discussion among value-chain participants to find a resolution to VZW's issues," said Jeff Lee, president of Distributive Networks, Washington.

"A contract amendment with such a drastic price change and such a short timeframe is not the best way to encourage a constructive dialogue among value-chain participants," he said.

"To its credit, Verizon seems to have realized this and we've heard through our connectivity providers that it plans to seek broader industry input before developing a revised proposal."

The announcement of such a rate hike sent a ripple of worry throughout the industry (see story).

"We've been in touch with a number of companies affected by this proposed change - aggregators, technology providers, publishers, mobile marketing clients and others," Mr. Lee said.

"There is widespread alarm at this news and I believe that a collective response is emerging from industry players, advising Verizon of the damage that such a change would cause to us, to the industry at large, and ultimately to Verizon," he said.