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Toronto (ECN) - Rogers wireless said it would be charging 15 cents for each incoming text messages for customers that haven’t signed up for any message plans beginning from July 7, following a similar plan by rivals Bell and Telus nine months ago.

Liz Hamilton who is the spokesperson for Rogers is reported to have said that the decision has been made keeping in mind the current pricing policies both in USA and Canada.

Subscribers would not be charged for spam messages and users of Fido brand would remain unaffected. Also the change in plan would affect only a small number of people as most of them have already coined their text messaging with cell phone plans.

The announcement came the same day Rogers announced that both Rogers Wireless and Fido will be able to receive and send their updates from Twitter, an online messaging service, by SMS text messaging via a short code 21212.This feature however comes at no extra cost to those that have already signed up for text messaging plans.

The 15 cents per message comes to only those that do not have any text plans and this includes the Fido consumers.

Last summer, text-messaging had become a political issue when Telus and Bell said they would begin charging incoming text messages. The head of the New Democratic Party, Jack Layton had also lead a fight with other consumer groups following the change in plans by Rogers.

The Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, who had also promised a fight against these charges changed his mind quickly after his meeting with Bell and Telus and said there would be no legislation against cell phone providers for charging for incoming text messages.

Two Quebec residents have reportedly launched a lawsuit against the wireless companies that have suddenly changed their contract plans.

The Government had introduced an anti-spam bill last month that stresses that new measures have been enforced to prevent telecom companies from charging consumers any fee for receiving unsolicited and commercial text messages.

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