As you might have guessed, a lot of Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) members were concerned, to put it mildly, when word got out that Verizon Wireless was looking to raise mobile termination (MT) rates for SMS.

The MMA isn’t commenting on Verizon’s proposal, but on Friday, MMA President Laura Marriott sent an e-mail to members asking to arrange a forum to talk about sustainable business models. The forum will take place in the form of a conference call with members, probably within the week, she said. If there’s interest, another forum will take place on Nov. 14, after the close of MMA’s conference in San Diego.

Historically, MMA doesn’t play a role in pricing and business models, but given members’ desire to talk about the current SMS issues, it was deemed necessary to get together, according to Marriott.

Carriers are members of the MMA, along with aggregators and content providers. From the carrier’s perspective, issues to consider are costs of litigation, hiring outside counsel, building networks and more. For aggregators and content providers, the likelihood of increased costs mean they need to understand and develop sustainable business models.

The intention is not to necessarily solve a problem but to put forth recommendations, she said. The goal of the session will be to develop viable business model recommendations over the next one, three and five years for the industry collectively to consider.

“The industry is changing,” she said. “The good news is there’s still a desire to work together and be productive in those discussions, so that makes our role as an association a lot easier,” she said.