Converge Digest has some stats on Verizon and Verizon Wireless’ Q1 2004 stats. Here are some of the highlights from last quarter:
- 1.4 million new customers. They’re definitely one of the benefactors of number portability.
- Customer loyalty is big. Fewer customers jumped ship last quarter.
- The average customer (voice, DSL, or wireless) paid Verizon $48 monthly.
- They’re ramping up on EV-DO
Now here’s the biggie: Verizon customers sent 2.1 billion text messages in Q1 2004. They downloaded 19 million apps to their phones (directly through Verizon). They sent 21 million picture messages.
Those numbers are for one carrier (now the number 2 carrier in the US) over one quarter. The stats mentioned by the BBC yesterday were for all UK carriers in the month of March. We’re obviously not sending as many SMSes over here as they do in the UK, but we’re catching up fast.
SMS pricing structures also tend to be different over here. Most carriers offer SMS bundles. I’ve got an add-on for my T-Mobile plan that gets me 500 SMS messages for $2.99. Other carriers have similar plans, or you can just pay $0.10 a pop.
Dave Winer might not have a use for SMS (other than as an illustration for an RSS vs. Atom argument), but Americans are indeed sending text messages. Quite a few of them.