Is there any reason, beyond corporate greed, for SMS messages to cost so much?
If I get it right, an SMS message is just a short string of data, no different from a message we send in a messenger. If so, then what makes them so expensive? If we’d take Internet plans and consider how much data an SMS takes, we should pay tiny fraction of a cent for each message; why doesn’t that happen?
I know it doesn’t help, but Europeans have always been amazed how much you guys were charged for SMS. Even in 1999, over here messages cost a fraction of what you were charged - that you pay for them at all these days is just mind-boggling.
I always wanted a Nokia - I know it was a cliche, but I was amazed at how indestructible they were. Even when they did actually break apart, you could just pick up the bits, clip them back together, and it would just work again - with no visible damage.
Obviously I updated my 5110 to a 3310 only a few years later!
But to be honest I think my all time favorite will always stay my Ericsson T610/630… I kept that thing for over seven years. It rocked. Even had Bluetooth which I used to connect with my X10 home automation.
It's funny. My general region uses text but really only phones if it's really important right this moment. We do have the phone conversations when it's too much to text though.
If you’re paying for SMS then it’s only because there are enough people like you. Sending email is free, or using Facebook or Instagram messaging, those are also free. If companies are charging for SMS it’s because they know that people like you are locked in.
And I’m not blaming you, because it’s hard when you have to change how you communicate, especially when a lot of the people around you are set in their ways.
They aren’t the cost was arbitrarily chosen 30 odd years ago and hasnt changed in all that time despite there being several free alternatives. Data usage doesnt cost what they charge either. Its all a scam.
Unlimited SMS is on most cell phone plans nowadays, at least in Canada.
On a slightly different tack: I run a website, and I choose not to implement SMS for notifications - only email. Email is free. Adding SMS, even at $0.007 per message, could add up to big bucks.
Are they? I have plans in both the UK and France, and I think they’re both unlimited sms. Not expensive plans, I think the UK one is £7 for unlimited sms, unlimited calls and 20gb of data. French one was 13€ for unlimited sms/calls, and 130gb data on 5g.
They are expensive? I pay 10 euros a month and that includes 500 SMS messages and 100 MMS ones along with call time and Internet that I have never exceeded so I haven’t checked how much it is.
I’d argue 10 bucks for that amount of messages is expensive. That’s roughly 2 cents for 1 message. A text is so miniscule in the grand scheme of data being passed back and forth between the phone and a cell tower, you should be getting unlimited messages for $10 bucks. Of course corpos will argue against this
It also includes calls and Internet. Also I have never sent more than 50 SMS messages per month so I guess I haven’t ever cared, most of my communication is either Signal, WhatsApp or Discord. On average it’s probably like 3 sms’ per month though.
I guess I always though it was pretty cheap since I never ran out of data or anything, I don’t think I could send 500 SMS messages if I tried.
I’m curious, what exactly are you sending SMS for nowadays? I can’t remember sending and SMS since at least 10 years, I only receive them for some services.
Holy hell. Sure, I bought my phone (a OnePlus 9) out of pocket but I pay about 20 USD for unlimited calls and SMS with 5Gb of data per month (I can also save unused data from each month to the other up to 15Gb). This is in Sweden for reference.
85 per phone? did you get suckered into a contract+new “free” iPhone or something? I pay 40/mo for unlimited everything in the States but could be paying 25-30 if I wanted to switch providers.
SMS message costs are a scam, always have been. It takes like 1-2 seconds worth of talk time for the same amount of sending a text.
I just looked it up and the $40 T-Mobile prepaid plan has a 10GB data limit. Tbh that’s probably plenty for most people, but it’s not unlimited. Their $50/mo option is unlimited, with caveats (such as throttling once you’ve used too much data).
They are going to monitor your traffic and throttle based on estimated video streaming speed on any of their plans.
Still pretty good compared to ATT and Verizon. Unfortunately I’m stuck with the provider I’m using since they seem to be the only one with good cover wage in my area.
This isn’t really true anymore. Originally it was and because SMS was rarely used it was effectively free. But then it grew more popular to the point where most messages didn’t have “unused bandwidth” to piggyback on and had to be sent separately. Now days all traffic is basically data traffic and SMS isn’t hiding in some unused space.
That being said it is still so close to free that it doesn’t really matter. Sending 140 bytes of low-priority data is a rounding error.
Depends what you mean by free, but in BC any of the lowest cost plans ($15/month) have unlimited SMS included with the plan. The only time I paid per text was on a pre-paid SIM.
It was expensive before because it’s a supreme form of communication: don’t need both parties to be online and vacant, conveys complex info in a succint form (think numbers, adresses) that’s saved on both parties’ phones like notes for later, have an option to pay for another party to answer you, could be printed and sent in secret when there’s a meeting or a lesson (with physical buttons most could’ve printed a message under the table) and it kinda had it’s own culture, with basic emoticons and shorthands for words - even if being far from how popular it became in Japan and in pager’s times.
Right now SMS messages aren’t used that much by individuals since it was killed by the internet+messengers+touchscreens trio so they charge extra to milk those who happen to need that. A lot of carriers at my place provide subscription plans with minutes and gigabytes, with SMS as additional paid package or with a ridiculous price for every message.
But they don’t actually earn much here, even if they charge a whopping lot. SMS providers get fed by commercial contracts with services who notify you of delivery, send you verification codes and show you your CC balance. Signal, the messenger, started to look into phone number-less accounts because their non-profit is tired to shoulder the price they need to pay for just an SMS per login. Some services now call instead of texting you and make you write the last numbers of the phone to verify your identity, because it’s cheaper for now.
I feel kinda nostalgic of times when it was popular and carriers introduced special plans for messaging enthusiasts. I hate people calling for every small thing and I’m tired of checking multiple internet channels of information. With SMS it all was simple and direct.
What are you paying for SMS? I pay 6 euro a month for unlimited sms and calls and 2 GB data. 50+ mobiel is my provider. Now they offer my plan with the first year for 2,5 euro. Dirt cheap.
Yeah, I drop the equivalent of 16€ and I get 60GB data and unlimited calls and SMS with my Danish provider. Having to pay for SMS is purely corporate greed.
I think my phone plan (in Japan) charges for outgoing SMS. I don't think it's much. I think some plans maybe include it. We all use LINE here (like much of Europe uses Whatsapp) so most people aren't sending text messages regularly if at all.
The last phone I ever had that dinged me for SMS messages was the tracfone I owned when that was all I could afford. I think that might have been like a decade or so ago? Maybe closer to 15 like you were saying.
Really basic plans still charge you. When I was in school, my parents gave me a dumb phone with a plan that cost 10 cents per minute of calling or 10 cents per sms. MMS didn’t even work. Ridiculously expensive, but at the amount I was using still cheaper than anything else
Pay-as-you-go is still popular in poorer markets, more rural areas or even in pro-competitive markets. It’s only particularly scummy markets that force customers to use their credit within a certain time period so for those who only rarely call/text and have consistent access to wifi, even 5-10 dollars worth of credit can last a year or more. Extremely consumer-friendly.
Yeah, I’m within the reach of wifi almost constantly. Only need to call or send an SMS very rarely, so I’m quite happy to just have credit as backup. I get the feeling my provider would really love to get me on some monthly plan, but that ain’t happening if I can help it.
For such limited usage, it’s absolutely not worth monthly. Unlimited for X amount is only good value if you’re making enough use out of it to outweigh the cost of PAYG. I used to travel for work and even at a bargain price of ~$10 for 20GB/unlimited/unlimited, I was only really using my data for Spotify while driving so come the end of the monthly cycle, I’d have an evening of watching YT or whatever else on my data since I’d still typically have about half left.
Worst is it gets you into the mindset of “I have this much for the month so I might as well use it” and influence you to use it more. I don’t want that.
I rode a prepaid plan like that for about 5 years, it’s honestly great. Everyone thought I was crazy when I said it cost me to text them lol but my cost was maybe ~$1/month. Now I’m on 50GB of data, but I travel almost constantly so it was finally worth it.
When you say free, as in totally free that you can send and receive anytime even without a plan? Or you mean free because it is already included in your prepaid or postpaid plan?
Free as in: unlimited calls and texts are included in pretty much all but the most bargain bin plans nowadays.
I was looking for a new cell provider a couple months ago, and I honestly don’t recall even seeing a plan that didn’t come with unlimited talk and text.
Because they can, simple as that. Or well, could. I don’t think I have sent a single text message in a solid decade now, and received only 2FA messages and pickup codes for storage boxes when something was delivered while I wasn’t home.
I really thought SMS is a remnant of the past at this point, just like fax systems. Working for legacy purposes, nothing more.
I used Signal for several years until some spotty areas near the beach it wasn’t working, so I worried it was unreliable and I abandoned Signal & went back to using whatever default SMS my cell provider has on my phone 🫤 Now y’all are reminding me to go back to Signal. Imma go do that now
I have a couple of friends and a family member on signal, the rest I text with, except for a neighbor who is too old to be great at it, and a blind friend. Oh and the elderly lady up the street. I guess my point is plenty of people use SMS, I guess it's whatever people prefer in a given area. I loathe voice, except on rare occasion when I speak with my kid or a good friend of mine, halfway around the world, but that's through signal, and it's always great to voice/video chat with him and sometimes his friends or SO.
Add comment