In a turn of events sure to anger advertisers, Verizon Wireless will soon begin charging companies a 3-cent fee to send a text message to subscribers beginning November 1st, Slashdot reports. Later, the company seemed to backpedal slightly, with a spokesperson saying that the exact charge or deployment date hadn't yet been decided.

What this means is that Verizon is charging both consumers and content providers for sending and receiving text messages. As has been widely reported, this will hit everyone from mobile ad companies (such as 4INFO and ChaCha) to media studios (NBC Digital, CNN, and others), and even mobile coupon companies like Cellfire. Even banks and text alert services will be affected. It's likely that as soon as Verizon puts it into effect, the other three major wireless carriers will follow suit, not being the types to pass up on free money or anything.