Virgin Mobile toys with MMS pricing

ORLANDO, Fla.-Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. will offer multimedia messaging for as low as one cent per message, following up on the success of its penny-texting bundles.
Beginning April 10, customers who sign up for one of three levels of messaging packs: a $2 per month package that allows them to send and receive 50 messages; a $5 pack for 200 messages sent and received; and a $10 per month bundle that allows up to 1,000 picture, text and instant messages.
The mobile virtual network operator currently charges 25 cents to send or receive picture messages without a bundle, and text messages and IMs are 5 cents apiece. Virgin Mobile USA said that its 4.6-million customer base sent and received 1.5 billion text messages, 11 million picture messages and 34 million IMs last year.
Virgin Mobile USA also announced a strategic partnership with Yahoo Inc. to offer its users Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Mail beginning in early April, as well as prominently featuring Yahoo’s mobile Web on the MVNO’s deck. The instant messaging and e-mail applications will be available for download on handset such as the Switch Back and Cyclops, and will be preloaded on some future phones, according to the MVNO.