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?
its crazier than you think… the original sms messaging was sent over an already existent, in process data path… they didnt really have to add much to the system to accommodate it, yet charged an obscene amount per message
the answer is simple; because they can
Messages went from $.05, to $.10, to $.20 to send and receive. That was in the span of three years. All of the companies said it wasn’t collision. They just happened to arrive upon massive increases separately.
If I recall, one of the CEOs said “We’re raising the prices to save customers money. This way they’ll be an unlimited plan”
The telcos should have been broken up then. Instead we’ve seen even more mergers.
- Edit: forgot to include the years. This was in the U.S. circa 2005-2008. Telcos have moved onto other sleezy practices now.*
You had to pay to receive? wtf.gif
So some rando could ruin you by sending a bazillion SMS messages?
I know you meant collusion, but in case anyone else didn’t, it’s not collision.
Where is this?
This was certainly in the US at one point. I remember having 500 per month, which was an absolute joke for 16 year old me with a girlfriend the next town over, and paying 25 send and 5 receive afterwards. Old cell plans were absolute trash.
Jesus. I remember my first cell was $35/month, 350 minutes of talk, no data and unlimited texts, before smart phones. On contact.
Yeah, I remember when they started rolling out data plans and they were hefty and the Internet on phones was useless. Then GPS on your phone was an add-on, also hefty. So it’s definitely improved.
Probably trying to get the last juice to squeeze as more and more traffic moves to web based messaging
Beyond corporate greed, there is none. SMS’ are even sent as part of routine packets on the cellular network so they don’t even take extra data. Carriers might pay extra for inter carrier routing, but again the cost associated with that is mostly corporate greed.
You compare to the internet but you have to remember, back when SMS’ were the only player in terms of cellular messaging, cellular data cost an arm and a leg.
As far as I could understand, North American carriers charged through the nose for mobile data for the longest time, but usually bundled SMS with some plans in some form, be it a set number of messages, or unlimited nights/weekends (oof, I don’t feel younger typing that one out). I was a student working for one of our Canadian carriers the first time I saw more than like a gig of data for less than 70$/month, and that was in the long term contracts, cancellation fees days lol
In most of the rest of the world, data became cheaper faster, but SMS was/is still expensive. This, combined with iPhone’s popularity in NA making people use iMessage, led to a lot of people just sticking to the defaults and use SMS on one side of the Atlantic, while the rest used WhatsApp or similar.
Pretty much, it was still expensive af though. I got my first cellphone in 1999 with Fido. Probably paid something like 50$ month and that came with like 100 texts messages and not very many minutes of local only calling.
My first non-prepaid plan with something that was not the cheapest flip phone possible, must have been around 2006-2007, with a slide phone, and the very minimum plan I could get which was, IIRC, 50 minutes of local calls, unlimited nights and weekends, and exactly zero text messages included, no caller ID nor voicemail 😂 First time I had a data plan was in late 2011, when I got my first smartphone (Galaxy SII), and that was definitely less than 1GB/month…
If you think you’re old, I started with a Nokia 5110…
Oh I don’t think I’m particularly old, statistically speaking I’ve got about the same amount or a bit more left to go… We just all have those moments that make you realize time flies, don’t we?
There was potential legislation and a lot of congressional probes in the mid-late 2000’s in the US that essentially forced cellular carriers to publicly admit that it cost next to nothing on their end to send SMS messages(like 10-7¢ per message) yet they charged insane premiums for them of 20¢ per message. This ended up being the catalyst for US carriers dropping most SMS charges to stay competitive while the rest of the world just changed over to alternate messaging services to avoid the fees instead like you said.
I quit with WhatsApp when Meta acquired it.
Wait, I haven’t paid for text messages in probably 15 years. Where do they still charge for SMS? It’s usually unlimited with any plan that I’ve seen
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.
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.
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
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.
They’re in Russia. I don’t know anybody in the US (I assume you’re talking about) who pays for SMS.
Who were you texting in 1999? Cell phones weren’t very common then.
I started university in 1999. Pretty much everyone had a mobile phone there. They were fairly new, granted, but they were pretty ubiquitous.
Probably me on my Nokia 5110 with the slick custom faceplate, extra thiccccc battery, and analog external module.
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.
Also, SNAKE
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.
I was late getting a flip phone, but I did in 02. Everyone else I knew already had mobile devices.
By 02 texting & cellphones were somewhat common. In 1999 people were only really using cellphones to make calls and they were less common than pagers.
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.
They were called pagers back then.
SMS piggybacks on existing signals to and from your phone. They are entirely free, and have been in a lot of places for a long time.
You’re getting screwed. At least it’s a good reason for your contacts to switch to signal or simpleX?
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.
Huh, TIL. Thanks!
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.
Where I live I haven’t seen non unlimited SMS or calls on normal plans in forever.
Sending an SMS as an operation is just as expensive as checking for signal. Which every phone is constantly doing.
I didnt know SMS is expensive. I know it was but i thought it was free nowadays.
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.
Outside of the legally required 911 you’re not getting anything for 100% free from a carrier, because why would they?
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.
Around 0,03 euro per SMS - not huge, but when someone contacts you via SMS and you have to communicate this way, money disappear quickly.
What country?
Russia
Generally a destination with cheap mobile communications. But unlimited SMS messages are not universally featured.
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.
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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.
7 euros for 20gb of data? I’m paying close to $30 a month for 1 gig and if I cross that the bill shoots up to $40 Fucking American Capitalism.
I pay 15€ a month in Portugal for unlimited data, sms, calls etc and it even includes roaming in the rest of Europe 😊
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.
Nah I obviously use messengers whenever possible :D
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.
Are you kidding? Everyone I know, even the kids, prefer sms. You can answer when and/or if you have time or feel like it
Nobody I know uses it, seriously. Every person is using whatsapp, and a handful privacy minded ones are on signal.
Not sure I’m getting your point though, I can answer on every single message protocol whenever I have time or feel like it?
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.
I pay $170/ month for two phones in the States. I wouldn’t say that SMS is free, but I can send an unlimited amount of messages with that plan.
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.
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.
Holy smokes that’s expensive :D 85 bucks per phone per month
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.
