All four major U.S. carriers announcing the creation of a joint venture called the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI). The goal is to deliver to consumers and businesses "the next generation of messaging." This will be accomplished through the use of Rich Communication Services (RCS), a technology that uses a phone's data connection instead of cellular to send and receive messages.
With RCS, Android users will be able to send messages as long as 8,000 characters instead of the 160 limit that the current SMS system is capped at. Users will also receive a read ...