If you’ve ever signed up for a text message service that you thought was cool only to see your cell phone bill riddled with $9.99 charges and gotten frustrated, those days are over.

As part of an effort spearheaded by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell along with regulators in 44 other states, have pushed the four major cell phone carriers to end a service called “cramming” that has been a gateway to fraud. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are all adhering to that effort. Verizon Wireless has also ended the premium text message practice but said:

“While we don’t agree with all of the attorney general’s allegations, we respect his efforts in this area,” Verizon general counsel William Petersen said in a statement. “Verizon had previously decided to exit the premium messaging business because of these changes as well as recent allegations that third parties have engaged in improper conduct in providing premium messaging services to our customers. We are in the process of winding down our premium messaging business.”

All four major carriers are looking to wind down premium text messaging as quickly as possible. The other three carriers also expressed the same sentiment as Verizon in that they will continue to allow contributions to political causes as well as charitable donations. The Red Cross has done extremely well with text-to-donate campaigns dating back to Hurricane Katrina.

All Things D’s Ina Fried did mention that you don’t have to worry you’ll still be able to vote on American Idol (people still watch that).

Source: AllThingsD