The great SMS (text message) rip off

Even when you are not talking on your cell phone, your phone is sending and receiving information. It is talking to its cell phone tower over a pathway called a control channel. The companies utilise this basically free channel to transport your message.

Did you know these messages should be free because the phone companies use the control channel to send the messages? It does not use any extra bandwidth on the voice channels or internet channels. In any case the messages are so short compared to internet data it should be free.

They like you to think it costs them money and you have to pay for it!

all my text messages are free anyway?

Suppose it depends on your contract, i pay £20.00 a month with unlimited free texts and 400 minutes, plus 3 numbers i can call for free anytime, like my wife

Agreed! People dont realise that sms messaging is pretty much the most expensive way to send data.

Most UK consumers think of text messaging as the cheapest and easiest way to communicate, with a typical cost for a standard 160 character text message of approximately 12p. When you break down that cost and relate it to the actual amount of data being sent, the true cost of texting is revealed. Every character you send in a text message equates to 1 byte of data. When translating this into a per Megabyte cost, it becomes clear just how expensive it is in the UK to send text messages, with consumers paying approximately £750 per MB*.

www.smstoday.co.uk...

Yes, but to own an SMS number, like the 8787 numbers, it costs the company to purchase these. But, this is only the premium SMS to my knowledge.

I have to completely agree that normal text messages should be near zero cost. But, you have to take into account that you are using the network. Since text messages are one of the most used forms of communication today, it would be fiscally unsound for the companies to offer them at zero cost. Their network is providing the service to you. And yes, even though it is not costing them to route those text messages, they are still having to maintain the network and pay the technicians to keep your text messages up and running. Well, the technicians, and all of the customer support and administrative personnel associated with your cellular phone company.

If sending texts is too much on your plan, you should look into the cost of internet time. More often than not, internet time doesn't cost during non-premium times, and so you could be sending emails at less cost than text messages. You can email to most cell phones, and they can receive it as a text, but you don't need to incur the Text Message sending fees on your end.

And this surprises you? Why shouldnt they charge for the use of their towers, their electricity to run the equipment inside the shack below said tower, their internconnect to the telco and internet.

Someone has to pay for it...why not the consumer?

Its the old saying..nothing is for free. Perhaps it will deter those who text message when they shouldnt be...like when driving a car.

And why would you want to sit there pounding away at little keys when most plans include free customer to customer voice calls anyway????




Cheers!!!!

[edit on 3-12-2008 by RFBurns]

haha, like you have some right to use the cell network to send trivial amounts of text for free (or very nearly so.). They can charge whatever they hell they want, because they own the system. If you don't like it, cancel your subscription and use E-mail or an IM client to send text to people.

It's a business model. If enough people are willing to use the service at the current cost point that it will turn a profit, than it is valid. Right now, text messaging is cheap enough that there are very few people who refuse to use it on grounds of expense. Most people who don't use it refuse to because they don't like typing on a phone, or prefer talking over the phone, or aren't really even aware the service exists.

If you think they could raise more money by lowering the price, then you might have a valid concern, but I'd guess that it's at it's most profitable service charge already. After all: they don't offer Text messaging services as a charity for the good of mankind; it's a premium service piggybacked onto a massive communications infrastructure.

Originally posted by majestictwo



Did you know these messages should be free because the phone companies use the control channel to send the messages? It does not use any extra bandwidth on the voice channels or internet channels. In any case the messages are so short compared to internet data it should be free.

They like you to think it costs them money and you have to pay for it!

So, according to this logic;

If I have FedEx deliver a package from my house to another, I should be able to add more packages for free because he is already going there, right?

Since American Airlines already has a plane flying from Denver to L.A. , I should be able to ride for free, right?

Since the RTD (Denver public bus) already goes right to where I want to go, I should be able to hop on for free, right?


After all, I'm not asking them to do anything they weren't already doing....



[edit on 3-12-2008 by Tiloke]

just get unlimited text, picture, and video messaging no more worries, end of problem

Or better yet, if it is too much of a burden to pay for that cell phone loaded with useless gadgets and mp3's then use the house phone or go to a pay phone and drop 50 cents in there and talk all you want and save your finger tips from forming sores and crunched deformed nails.


Cheers!!!!

reply to post by majestictwo


When someone provides a service for you, you have to pay for it.

No offence mate, but even cavemen could understand that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Originally posted by expatwhite
all my text messages are free anyway?

Suppose it depends on your contract, i pay £20.00 a month with unlimited free texts and 400 minutes, plus 3 numbers i can call for free anytime, like my wife

Good enough plan but free unlimited is not true it is unlimited text included in your plan, you still pay for it.

Originally posted by ThreeDeuce
Yes, but to own an SMS number, like the 8787 numbers, it costs the company to purchase these. But, this is only the premium SMS to my knowledge.

I have to completely agree that normal text messages should be near zero cost. But, you have to take into account that you are using the network. Since text messages are one of the most used forms of communication today, it would be fiscally unsound for the companies to offer them at zero cost. Their network is providing the service to you. And yes, even though it is not costing them to route those text messages, they are still having to maintain the network and pay the technicians to keep your text messages up and running. Well, the technicians, and all of the customer support and administrative personnel associated with your cellular phone company.

If sending texts is too much on your plan, you should look into the cost of internet time. More often than not, internet time doesn't cost during non-premium times, and so you could be sending emails at less cost than text messages. You can email to most cell phones, and they can receive it as a text, but you don't need to incur the Text Message sending fees on your end.

Yep your right “Threedeuce” it should be near zero but it’s not everyone pays even if their plan says free. Its not costing to route messages the system operates on the control channel and that is a generic part of cell phone networks.

You pay your part of running the system on each call you make (each second) and that’s fair. The cost of text messages is un-proportional.

I know how to be cost effective and what services are available. I think many have jumped to the conclusion that this post is a moan about stuff – well its not

A British consumer tv show last year worked out that at 160 characters per £0.10 text message, it'd actually be less expensive hiring the Hubble Space Telescope, in terms of data received versus cost. So they are a bit of a rip off.

Still love them though. Only thing worse than the cost of sending them is ... not receiving any

You pay because it is a service you would not otherwise have.

They decide to give you the service, and you agree to pay for it. They can charge whatever they like, and they have never told me the cost is to cover their costs. I know they get much of the money...it is business.

Maybe cut down on the number of text messages might help lower the bill?

Perhaps begin learning txt msg abbriviation may also cut down on the per message bill.

You see these companies know that alot of people are using text messaging more than they are the voice phone calls. And as one poster pointed out, it is their systems that you are subscribed to. So they bill you for the service you are using..in this case, the text messaging portion of your cell plan. And rightfully so, they charge accordingly.


Cheers!!!!!

Niall197 - Quite right it is a bit of a rip off.

Aanonymous – thanks your right and that’s another way to look at it.

Tiloke – It is nothing like sending packages by fedex. The analogy is not even close. Closer would be Teletext at least they provide a service and give you it as part of TV.

Anyhow I will say again I’m am not complaining about my charges it has nothing to do with my plan (read the OP properly) and I don't need advice how to be more economical – okay

If you think you should pay then you won’t mind paying the cost of a text message every time you move from cell to cell because your cell phone and the towers send the same packets of information and on the control channel. Its part of the system its automatic so is text messages and they have added this extra charge.

Originally posted by majestictwo
Niall197 - Quite right it is a bit of a rip off.

Aanonymous – thanks your right and that’s another way to look at it.

Tiloke – It is nothing like sending packages by fedex. The analogy is not even close. Closer would be Teletext at least they provide a service and give you it as part of TV.

Anyhow I will say again I’m am not complaining about my charges it has nothing to do with my plan (read the OP properly) and I don't need advice how to be more economical – okay

If you think you should pay then you won’t mind paying the cost of a text message every time you move from cell to cell because your cell phone and the towers send the same packets of information and on the control channel. Its part of the system its automatic so is text messages and they have added this extra charge.

Again; it's not a charity, and it's not a right. They could very well NOT provide a text-message function, it's just that they wouldn't make as much money if they didn't. Similarly, they could offer it for free, but the same holds. you're perfectly free to construct a massive communications infrastructure of your own, complete with widespread cell towers and communications satellites so that you and everyone else can send text messages for free. most people, however, would find the expense involved in doing so is far greater than the expense over a lifetime of paying a ridiculous sum of money per byte to have minuscule files sent along the existing infrastructure.

Eventually, there will probably be plans that offer unlimited text messages and highly limited standard phone services, reflecting the changing usage statistics of their customer base. Until then, feel free to whinge about it; they're completely within their rights to charge for the service. Free enterprise, after all, happens to be one of the tenets of our society, free text messaging, however, does not.