Are You Being Charged Too Much For Text Messaging?

I’ll answer that question even before I start this article: Yes, you are. And you always have been since the first time you used text messaging on a mobile wireless network.

The reason you’re getting screwed is because those who are computer savvy even to the most basic degree understand that when you charge 20 cents for 140 bytes of data or less transferred, that’s nothing short of the rip-off of the century. More on that in a moment.

According to washingtonpost.com, all the major phone carriers deem that outside of the flat-rate monthly data plans, a text message costs 20 cents each time one is transferred.

Let’s examine that for a moment.

If you take a 140-character phrase and save it as a text file on your computer, you will see that text file is 140 bytes exactly. One byte per character.

Let’s say you live on your cell phone and send 500 text messages daily (yes that’s extreme but there are some crazy fools who actually send that much), with each being a full 140 bytes each. That’s 70,000 bytes daily or 68.4 kilobytes.

If you sent that much text messaging data every day for a whole month, that’s 2 megabytes of data. That’s it. Just 2. For the month.

You’re probably thinking "I can download more than that in a web browser in less than 5 minutes." That’s right.

Now realize that most people don’t get anywhere near 2 megabytes of plain old text data transferred per month. We’re not even talking binary transfers here, just text and text alone.

You’ve probably figured out by now that 140 bytes isn’t worth 20 cents no matter how you look at it. No way, no how. It’s an outright ridiculous price.

Consider the following (this is from the linked article above):

…600 text messages contain less data than a 1 minute phone call. It said that at 20 cents a text message, wireless carriers would collect $120 for 600 messages.
"Does $120 for the equivalent of one minute of voice seem reasonable?"

I personally don’t think that’s reasonable.

Do you?

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Jim
i use metropcs, 45.00 a month unlimited everything
SAP
I think you are overlooking the overhead of processing the messages, so it’s not entirely fair to aggregate the data volumes in this way.
Each message has to be individually routed and perhaps stored temporarily.
Drew
MetroPCS? LOL Uhh, pity both their customer service and coverage is crap.
SAP – the overhead of processing is negligible. Cell phone SMS technology was paid for basically within it’s first few years of inception. Back in Australia, on the GSM network, the actual physical cost of sending a text message is only 0.06 of 1 cent. So, 0.06 cents then. I know this as I was a corporate account manager for one of the major players back home in Oz and I had friends who worked with the SMS Gateway and I gained a tonne of valuable insight into the way it works.
In a nutshell, this article is spot on. Pricing is ludicrous and extreme. I pay $10 per month for unlimited texting which in itself, is kind of extreme in itself, but the Telco’s know we will pay for it. Only way it’ll get changed is through Congress I’d say
Jim
i have been with just about all the cell fone companies, and, actually they all suck, metropcs coverage ? perfect for me, if i am traveling somewhere for the weekend that they dont cover , np, i have a trac fone for that, still save more that way than paying double with the other companies for the exact same service, and, actually , their customer service has been far better than tmobiles or nextel’s
Karl
Hell no! I don’t think it’s resonable at all. I pay few bucks in spam text messages alone; let alone the legit ones. I wish I could block text messaging on my cell or allow only certain phone numbers to send me texts. Bummer for now…
blue60007
What’s worse is when you receive wrong number text messages and it costs you for someone else’s fat fingers.
SAP
Is it only in the US where the receiver pays for mobile phone text messages?
In the UK (and Europe, AFAIK) the sender pays for SMS messages and voice calls. The receiver does not pay unless they are roaming, and then only for voice calls. Text messages are still free to receive abroad.
blue60007
Yeah I think most are that way. Sending does cost more than receiving but still.
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