Good news for text fiends who happen to be Boost Mobile customers with lots of international friends.

Irvine’s Boost today added International Connect, an unlimited international plan for $10 a month, which can only be added on to its newish $50 monthly unlimited plan. This is a good plan for people texting from the U.S. or Baja California to anywhere in the world.

Without the plan, it’s $0.10 to text internationally and free to receive. That means the deal is only a deal if you send way more than 100 international texts a month. 

As part of the new option, users can also chat via Boost’s Walkie-Talkie service to people in Canada, Baja California, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Why only those places? Boost has partnered with Nextel México, Nextel Argentina, Nextel Brasil, Nextel Perú and Nextel Chile.

The $0.10 per international text is a pretty good deal anyway. I did some research and for customers of other cell phone companies, international texting rates are much higher:

AT&T charges $0.25 to send, $0.20 to receive. Multimedia messages are $0.50 to send, $0.30 to receive. Details HERE. A $9.99 monthly plan allows users to send 100 texts internationally. Received texts are counted as regular texts.

Verizon Wireless charges $0.25 to send, $0.20 to receive. If you’re outside the U.S., sending texts cost $0.50 each but $0.05 to receive. Details HERE.

T-Mobile charges around $0.35 to text internationally and $0.20 to receive. Details HERE.

Sprint charges $0.20 to send or receive international texts. Details HERE.

Virgin Mobile USA charges $0.20 to send, $0.10 to receive. Details HERE. 

Helio, now part of Virgin Mobile, charges $0.15 to send or receive an international text message. For multimedia messaging, Helio charges $0.05 per kilobyte plus $0.25 per message sent. But if you’re an “All In” customer who pays $99/month for everything, international texts are free, while multimedia texts are $0.25 each. Details HERE.

Another option for all mobile users: Send2World.com is a pay-as-you-go plan that drops the per-text rate if you send more messages. Rates range between $0.12 per text for up to 50 messages per month to $0.07 for 500 or more. Caveat: Each message still counts against any texting plan you have on your existing cell phone plan.

Are there others I’ve overlooked? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comment area.

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