Posted: March 8, 2007

Wireless carriers are acting quickly and often to make sure text-messaging does not fall prey to the same spamming issues which have plagued e-mail for years. Verizon recently won a legal battle against Specialized Programming and Marketing, who had sent approximately 100,000 unsolicited text messages offering a free cruise to Verizon subscribers. Specialized was ordered to pay Verizon $200,000 in damages and has been blocked from sending any messages to Verizon customers in the future. This is not the first time Verizon has sued over text-messaging spam issues, and by the looks of it, they will have no trepidation doing so again in the future if the need arises.

“Text messaging is a great and increasingly popular way to communicate, but unwanted or unsolicited text message spam to our customers’ handsets is unacceptable,” Steve Zipperstein, vice president of legal and external affairs at Verizon Wireless, said in a statement. “We have a long track record of protecting our customers’ privacy, including through lawsuits, and will continue to do so.”

The major carriers, especially Verizon, realize how costly spam has been to the effectiveness of e-mail marketing campaigns and are refusing to let text-messaging suffer the same fate. Marguerite Reardon of CNET writes, “Text message spam has been on the rise in the past couple of years. But compared with e-mail spam, it is still a drop in the bucket. Still, wireless operators realize that a severe outbreak of cell phone spam could severely damage their reputations, a key concern as they look to include text-based advertising in their business models.”

This is great news for any company looking into the possibility of adding mobile marketing to their advertising portfolio. The major wireless carriers aren’t waiting until spam becomes unmanageable, but are instead attacking the problem before it has even become noticeable to most mobile consumers. This spells trouble for anyone trying to use the wireless platform as a vehicle for spam and is another reason why mobile marketing has a bright future indeed.

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