Sprint Nextel will increase its casual text-message rate Oct. 1 t...
Sprint Nextel will increase its casual text-message rate Oct. 1 to 20 cents a message from 15 cents, a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. The wireless company will also increase the SMS overage rate for customers with text message plans…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
to 20 cents from 10 cents a message, she said. Sprint is alerting customers of the change in their August and September bills, the spokeswoman said. Customers can’t use the increase to get out of their contracts without termination fees, the spokeswoman said. Sprint’s terms of service allow customers to terminate without fee “in response to a materially adverse change.” But the SMS rate change affects a “casual use charge” that Sprint’s terms of service say is “not a core part of the rate plan package.” The termination fee waiver “only applies to fee changes to plans with a term commitment, such as voice plans,” the spokeswoman said. “Attachables and additional services such as text messaging do not require a term commitment and can be canceled at any time without penalty or affecting the customers’ contract… Casual usage is not covered by the terms and conditions since it is not subscription-based.” Sprint did allow customers to leave without termination fee when it raised the charge to 15 cents from 10 cents in October 2006.