The increasingly high cost of text messaging has already caused a bit of a stir in Canada, and it looks like Democratic Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin is concerned with the situation in the US as well, with him now opening an inquiry to attempt to get the carriers to explain themselves. Apparently, Kohl is a bit puzzled as to why some customers are now paying 20 cents per message when they paid just 10 cents in 2005, a period that Kohl notes just happens to overlap with some consolidation in the wireless industry, when the number of national carriers shrunk from six to four. Those carriers, as you might expect, aren't saying much just yet, with Sprint only going as far as to say that it looks forward to "responding to the Senator's inquiry about the text messaging options we offer our customers and we will fully cooperate with his request," and the rest saying even less.

Like Canada, Mexico's getting mobile payments, too, but these are just a bit different in two very important respects. One, this is a full-fledged service being underwritten by Telefonica, Iusacell, Citibank, and BBVA -- not just a trial. Two, unlike the NFC-based Canadian system, this one will rely on text messages to get the cash flowing. The service is expected to launch in the next few months and get backing from restaurants, stores, and taxis, all places where we can recall specific times when we would've rather kept our wallets in our pockets when the time came to pony up. Of course, considering how miserably unsuccessful mobile payments have been across North America so far (we've still got our fingers crossed that NFC is going to take off one of these days), this one could die off as quickly as it started unless it catches a break and goes big.

The normally pedestrian procedure of re-upping your minute bank just got a little more exciting for customers of Vodafone's prepaid service in the UK, where the launch of the aptly-named "Text Unlimited" promotion offers incentives for topping up. Adding £5 worth of voice over the course of the month wins you unlimited texts on weekday evenings the following month; £10 get weekends, too, and £30 leads to an unlimited playground of messaging nirvana. The service launches September 1, and Vodafone's using the opportunity to tie it in with the prepaid launch of the Sony Ericsson K770i in "Touch of Pink" and "Star Heaven Silver". Whoever thought of the names of those colors should be rewarded with at least one month of unlimited messaging, eh?

Here's something you don't hear everyday ever: an Irish air traffic controller helped guide a seriously malfunctioning plane to a safe landing via SMS. In a story that's admittedly tough to fathom, a pilot with four passengers aboard his twin-engined Piper plane lost all on board electrical power, communications and weather functions soon after he lifted off. In a effort to establish any form of contact with someone back on the ground, he phoned a controller at the Cork airport and spoke only momentarily of his troubles before losing voice signal. The quick-thinking controller decided to switch up his conversation method to texting, eventually providing sufficient details to safely guide the pilot in. Can you say "promotion?"

[Via Slashdot, image courtesy of StarWars Blog]

Ready for some excitement in the form of watching a startup squirm as it waits for its product to gain traction? Take a glance at Peek, which is churning out a dedicated handheld that handles e-mail, a few chain forwards, and more e-mails when you're done with that. At first glance, one may consider such a one-trick-pony quite ridiculous, but it's hard to say what will end up catching on these days. The biggest problem facing Peek is the pricing: it'll be $99.95 up front when it lands in Target next month, plus $19.95 per month to send unlimited e-mails over T-Mobile's network. Of course, if anyone figures out how to load Opera Mini up here, the Bulls-eye Shop won't be able to keep the shelves stocked.

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

Using little more than book knowledge, experience from previous projects, and a healthy shot of elbow grease, a Kenyan kid has constructed a nifty (and perhaps just a little scary) box that attaches to your car to provide a number of unique remote-control features that you're not going to find on your average OnStar setup. The flagship function seems to be the real-time lockout, which can call you as the car is being started; only if you confirm that it's not some baddie trying to jack your ride will the ignition request be granted. That's not all, though -- it'll also let you dial into the car and listen in on any conversations going on within. The young man says he's seeking additional funding to take his project to the next level, but in the meantime, don't even think about making off with a white Mitsubishi the next time you're in Mombasa. Follow the break for a video of the system in action.

[Via AfriGadget]

Though it's a common practice in the US, charging customers for incoming text messages isn't terribly common up in Canada. Don't worry though, Canadians -- your days of being chronically undercharged are drawing to a close thanks to suspiciously closely-timed announcements from Bell and Telus that they'll start chalking up 15 cents per inbound message for anyone not on a messaging plan starting in August. The country's industry minister is none too pleased about the change (the dude must get like a thousand texts a day, after all), sending out letters to Bell and Telus' head honchos requesting meetings before the new charges take effect. We'll see where this goes, but we certainly wouldn't get our hopes up.

Read - Bell, Telus customers to pay for incoming text messages
Read - Ottawa moves to forestall texting revolt [Via Smart Mobs]

While there has been quite the kerfuffle about banning texting while driving and educating Australian youngsters on text speak, a new survey shows that the vast majority of us haven't even sent a single SMS. Research firm Ipsos MediaCT polled individuals in a variety of countries and came to one general conclusion: If folks are using SMS, "they're using it frequently." On the flip-side, those who aren't savvy with text messaging aren't apt to just dabble in it. For instance, 82% of respondents in America said "that they never used text messaging, while 3% said that they used it monthly or less" and 15% reported using it "every week or even more. Who knows what that figure would be if carriers stopping charging an arm and a leg for per-use messaging.

[Via Textually, image courtesy of ugo]

Just a little over a year after going to 15 cents per message, T-Mobile's at it again, bumping the rate to 20 cents for those who go over their monthly allotment. For anyone with an unlimited messaging plan, it's obviously not an issue -- but many folks aren't, so this could end up stinging the pocketbook just a bit when it goes in effect come August 29. For what it's worth, T-Mob just seems to be responding to the 20 cent trend that's going on in the industry right now -- but it still hurts something fierce, and it's a pretty solid reminder that even casual texters are better off on a legit messaging plan these days.

[Thanks, Ryan J. and Mike]

This ain't your grandpappy's My Circle. Well, actually, it pretty much is, with one small change: customers signing up for a My Circle messaging plan of $7.99 or higher on Alltel will now get unlimited messaging within their Circle, while the non-Circle bucket starts at 400 per month. The $19.99 "All Access Pass" is still available too, which rocks unlimited messaging to everyone regardless of whether they're cool enough to be in your Circle -- and it includes mobile web access, to boot. The new plans are available immediately.

Between this, voice-to-text, and text-to-voice systems, the lines between talking and texting are getting very blurred indeed. NEC used the NXTcomm show in Las Vegas to show off its "Bubble Text" technology, which is really nothing more than voice SMS -- record a quick snippet of talking, send it off, and the recipient gets a note in his or her inbox with your sonorous speech attached to it. At a high level, it's no different than attaching a sound clip to an MMS, but NEC appears to have streamlined the software to the point where setting up and sending the message is no more difficult than sending a traditional text -- and depending on your circumstances, it can actually be quite a bit easier since there's no actual texting involved. NEC claims that seven carriers have already deployed Bubble Talk, and it's in talks (bubble talks?) with several others. Follow the break for a video of Bubble Talk in action.

[Via Unwired View]

The hot new smartphone plan might be the big news out of Verizon so far this week, but riding those coattails are a series of interesting new messaging offerings as well. The plans are targeted squarely at folks who put a bigger emphasis on text allowances than they do on voice minutes, and have allegedly been willed into existence as a direct result of customer feedback. Actually, you don't even need any voice plan at all to make these bad boys happen on your bill. So-called "consumer devices" get dinged for $34.99 a month (mobile email's an extra $5 here) while owners of BlackBerrys and PDA / smartphone class devices pay $54.99, getting in return an unlimited dosage of messaging and on-device data usage; calls run 40 and 25 cents per minute, respectively. If you let your thumbs do 90 percent of the talking on a daily basis, this might just be your hook-up.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Whoa there, didn't these just go up not long ago? Indeed they did, but in the fast-paced, money-grubbing world we call home, two price bumps spaced a year apart are sadly par for the course. AT&T has started informing customers that unless they're subscribed to a messaging plan, they'll be paying 5 cents more for both text messages and picture / video messages -- now up to 20 and 30 cents per, respectively. The change takes effect March 30, so we'd recommend you either tell all your peeps to cut it out with the messaging or sign up with a package by then. Follow the break for AT&T's full manifesto.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]