Text message rates have doubled since 2005, from about 10 cents each to 20 cents today. Senator Herb Kohl (D.-Wisc.), who chairs the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, has asked Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile to explain it to him. "It does not appear to be justified by rising costs in delivering text messages," the letter says. "Text-messaging files are very small, as the size of text messages are generally limited to 160 characters per message, and therefore cost carriers very little to transmit." Kohl's suspicion: The four big carriers have increased their prices nearly in sync, suggesting a collusion to wring more money out of the market rather than to compete against one another. Read the whole thing — it's no Series of Tubes. (Photo via Gizmodo)

Sprint Nextel just can't stop the bleeding, losing $344 million and 901,000 subscribers last quarter. This was actually better than Q1, when they lost $505 million and 1 million subscribers. Qwest — communications provider to Bill Gates country and the rural Midwest — meanwhile earned $188 million, which was a 24 percent drop compared to $245 million in the same quarter the year before. Qwest also only signed up 31,000 high-speed Internet subscribers. [KansasCity.com, Reuters]

Sprint CEO Gary Forsee is quitting effective immediately and Sprint has adjusted its financial guidance downwards. The company's board has been looking at outside candidates, so feel free to submit your resume. [WSJ]