Sprint Nextel has increased its SMS fee from 15c a message to 20c a message, the second hike in 10 months. However, last time people could use the rate-rise to get out of a Sprint contract without paying an early termination fee (ETF), where as this time: “According to Sprint Nextel’s current contract terms, only a “material” change in rates would allow customers to abandon contracts without paying an ETF, and the carrier said the most recent change does not make the grade” reports RCR News. Because people in the US pay to both send and receive messages each SMS now effectively costs 40c. On a per megabyte basis SMS was already the most profitable form of mobile data, so I think this move has more to do with getting people to buy bundles of messages…and raise data revenue without relying on content? Anyway, changing carriers won’t necessarily help—when Sprint raised SMS prices last year the other US carriers quickly followed.