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In the video above, Tatango CEO Derek Johnson answers the question, “What is premium text messaging?” Prefer to read instead? No problem, please see the post below. You can also find answers to all of your SMS marketing questions in our Q&A video library; click here to browse.
What is Premium Text Messaging?
Premium text messaging refers to special text message programs that required additional fees to subscribe. These fees are charged to consumer’s wireless phone bills. Typically, premium text message programs were for ringtones, jokes of the day, screensavers, trivia, and horoscopes.
The problem is, consumers weren’t always aware of these charges. For that reason, in December 2013, the wireless carriers decided to eliminate premium text messaging due to a large number of complaints from consumers. As you can see from the example below, premium text messaging is a thing of the past.
The type of premium text messaging present today—where consumers are billed through a text message—is much different than the type of premium messaging from the past. For example, political and non-profit donation campaigns can still process fees to a cell phone bill if a consumer agrees to donate to a cause they care about. But the customer has to clearly give their consent. Fortunately, the old version of spammy premium text messaging isn’t allowed anymore.
Read more about political text message donations or non-profit text messaging.
