Verizon Expands Text Messaging To 28 Countries

Verizon Wireless said Tuesday that users of its text messaging service can now reach 400 million people users in 28 countries.

The company rolled out its International TXT Messaging product about two years ago and announced a significant expansion last December to include the ability to exchange messages with Vodafone's customers. All told, the company said the service can now communicate with users in 28 countries, including Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. The company said Tuesday that the list of countries covered now includes Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Singapore and Sweden.

The company said that its customers sent 2.1 billion text messages in the U.S. and abroad in the first quarter of 2004. The service can send and receive messages between Verizon Wireless' CDMA network and GSM networks of other operators. The technology to perform that exchange was created by U.S. vendor InphoMatch.