Cingular has announced a 50% price increase for the price for an SMS message. Starting January 21st SMS messages will cost 15 cents (this applies to both sending and receiving). Sprint made this same move back in October.
Despite the hefty price increase, Cingular customers will not be able to renig on their contracts. Sprint allowed users without a bulk rate SMS plan to cancel their contracts without an early termination free (usually around $200) after the price hike. Sprint did not reveal how many customers took advantage of that offer however.
Cingular will try to use this move as a way to get more customers to sign up for a bulk SMS plan. The base plan is $5 monthly for 200 messages and the top plan is $20 for 3,000. T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless still offer messages at 10 cents apiece.