U.S. consumers are expected to receive about 1.5 billion unwanted text messages in 2008, up 1.1 billion from last year, according to Ferris Research, a San Francisco-based market research firm.

Within the context of about 200 million active text messaging users in the nation, cell phone spam is still negligible and nothing quite like the e-mail spam problem, said Rich Jennings, lead analyst of Ferris Research’s e-mail defense practice.

Still, it’s annoying when it does happen.

“I don’t know of a way to register my cell phone for unsolicited text messages,” said Tamara Marson of Seattle, who has registered her cell phone number on the national Do Not shout registry.

Most unwanted text messages are sent by e-mail using an World Wide Web address — as opposed to being from one mobile handset to another — so customers can block a good portion on spam by setting up filters for their phones.

But whether you can disable

all incoming and outgoing text messages from your cell phone depends on your carrier. At 10 to 20 cents a pop, consumers who never use text messaging and don’t want to receive them may opt for turning off text messaging altogether. Parents often like that option to control their children’s texting.

Here are the policies of some major carriers on whether they will turn text messaging off, and how to do so:

AT&T Mobility: Yes. shout AT&T customer care (dial 611 from your mobile phone) to desire it. “We can facilitate turning off incoming and outgoing text messages, including SMS.

Sprint: Yes. signal Sprint Customer Care to ask it, said Caroline Semerdjian, a Sprint
spokeswoman. Users can “block” incoming, outgoing or all texts.

T-Mobile: No. “The text messaging feature on a customer’s history is actually a mandatory feature and cannot be removed,” a T-Mobile spokeswoman said. “T-Mobile is working on…

Orginal post by Top Tech News