Texting Price Ripoff
I posted this in another thread in answer to a question. But on second thought, it really deserves its own thread.
Here's what David Pougue, the Tech columnist for the NY Times had to say last year about text messaging cost ripoff:
TEXT-MESSAGING FEES Why has the price of a text message gone to 20 cents, from 10, in two years? There was no big technology shift. There was no spike in the cost of electrons.
And speaking of anticompetitive: Isn’t it a little fishy that all four big United States carriers raised their text-message fees at essentially the same time?
Furthermore, why do text messages get special premium treatment at all? Why are e-mail messages (which require much more data) included with basic Internet servic ...
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Here's what David Pougue, the Tech columnist for the NY Times had to say last year about text messaging cost ripoff:
TEXT-MESSAGING FEES Why has the price of a text message gone to 20 cents, from 10, in two years? There was no big technology shift. There was no spike in the cost of electrons.
And speaking of anticompetitive: Isn’t it a little fishy that all four big United States carriers raised their text-message fees at essentially the same time?
Furthermore, why do text messages get special premium treatment at all? Why are e-mail messages (which require much more data) included with basic Internet servic ...
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America is the land of getting away with corporate greed. No surprises here. Good information, though.
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Well this is really old news so I am not sure it needed its on thread.. But anyway.
First. SMS is carried over the voice network so only an uninformed person would try to compare sending an email to sending an SMS.
Second. No one forced you into paying a higher price for your SMS. At the time of the change you had the option to leave your contract with no ETF. All the carriers are doing it? Oh then don't have a mobile phone. You do know a mobile phone is still considered a luxury and taxed as one.
Third. Very few people pay per message anymore? With a plan you could be paying as little as $0.002 per message!
Fourth. I'm writing this from my phone so I am sorry in advance for any spelling or grammar errors.
Fifth. Do you...
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First. SMS is carried over the voice network so only an uninformed person would try to compare sending an email to sending an SMS.
Second. No one forced you into paying a higher price for your SMS. At the time of the change you had the option to leave your contract with no ETF. All the carriers are doing it? Oh then don't have a mobile phone. You do know a mobile phone is still considered a luxury and taxed as one.
Third. Very few people pay per message anymore? With a plan you could be paying as little as $0.002 per message!
Fourth. I'm writing this from my phone so I am sorry in advance for any spelling or grammar errors.
Fifth. Do you...
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Archer Bullseye,
If you are trying to get me, or other rate payers, to sympathize with the wireless carriers because they are losing money on text messages, I have a bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan to sell you.
If you are trying to get me, or other rate payers, to sympathize with the wireless carriers because they are losing money on text messages, I have a bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan to sell you.
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I didn't say anything about losing money.. I'm sure they do on very high end users of SMS.. But that was not really part of my argument.
Last I looked, all companies are in buisness to make money.. When that changes, let me know. 🙂
Last I looked, all companies are in buisness to make money.. When that changes, let me know. 🙂
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European plans don't charge the receiver, but they also don't include any minutes to landlines (these are billed like landline long distance, with no package deals included), they don't allow free calling to anyone on the network, or "free nights and weekends"
In fact, if you add up all the additional perks of US carriers (free N&W, IN calling, unlimited long distance, no roaming, etc) you'll find that they are MORE than competative to their European counterparts.
Speaking of, you do know that over in Europe, someone who sends 500 texts a YEAR is considered a heavy user right? in the US, anyone under the age of 18 with a texting plan is sending 500+ a week on average, with heavy users pushing 50-70k texts a month. This is a big reaso...
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In fact, if you add up all the additional perks of US carriers (free N&W, IN calling, unlimited long distance, no roaming, etc) you'll find that they are MORE than competative to their European counterparts.
Speaking of, you do know that over in Europe, someone who sends 500 texts a YEAR is considered a heavy user right? in the US, anyone under the age of 18 with a texting plan is sending 500+ a week on average, with heavy users pushing 50-70k texts a month. This is a big reaso...
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