Just one day after Verizon Wireless announced a $2 fee for online or by-phone single payments, the company announced it was canceling the charge.

On Thursday, the company announced it would charge customers a $2 "convenience fee" for single bill payments made online or by telephone starting Jan. 15. The decision led to an uproar online from customers, even prompting 50,000 people to sign an online petition on Change.org against the fee in just two hours.

The fee would have been waived for those who pay by electronic check or enroll in AutoPay.

Molly Katchpole, a Verizon customer and the petition's author, successfully used a similar petition to pressure Bank of America to drop its proposed $5 debit card fee earlier this year.

Verizon said it made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, "which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions."

"At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless. "Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time."

Verizon Wireless, headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., is the largest U.S. cell phone carrier. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. It has 90.7 million retail customers and 17 million wholesale and other customers, according to the company.