The US Department of Justice on Friday informed the four major US carriers that it has closed its investigation into alleged collusion on the price of text messages.
The investigation began in 2008 with a formal inquiry from Senator Herb Kohl, Chairman of the Senate Antitrust Committee, who expressed concern that the per-megabyte price of text messaging cost more than $1300. In the inquiry, Kohl also made the implication of collusion by noting that the big four US carriers (Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint-Nextel) upped their texting rates to twenty cents simultaneously.
“Also of concern is that it appears that each of these companies has changed the price for text messaging at nearly the same time, with identical price increases,” he said. Kohl wrote that such a uniform increase was “hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace.”
After more than a year of investigation, however, the USDOJ could find no evidence of wrong-doing on behalf of the carriers. The network operators also asserted that the per-SMS price is much less than $00.20 after considering the cost of a text messaging plan.
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