Premium text messaging services are offered by third party companies and billed through your Verizon Wireless account. Upon signing up for the service, the Premium Content Provider will send messages to your phone billed at either a per message basis or a monthly subscription fee. The process to sign up for one of these services is to either message to the premium content provider (which has a 5-6 number 'short code') confirming that you want the service, or you can apply for the service through the premium content provider website; in which case, you enter your phone number and they send you a 'pin code' as a text message to the phone, which you confirm through their website to agree to the services.
There are quite a few premium messaging content providers, that range in services from: sending you wallpapers/ringtones embedded in their messages, stock quotes, weather alerts, sports scores, horoscopes, TV gameshows. Verizon Wireless didn't make up this charge and there's probably a reason it's on your bill.
