Being charged for incoming text messages

[gogoblender 3,071]

Well.

 

Big boys are doing it again. It looks like here, in Canada, of the three major carriers, Bell, Telus, and Rogers, the first two have decided to charge, now, after a few years for ALL incoming text messages. This is a new thing here in Canada. We were always charged .15 for every outgoing text, but never for incoming. What's going to happen now, is someone you don't even know can send you text messages..lol, and you'll be charged for each message!

 

It irks me a bit because, let's say you compare this to a phone....you're not charged every time your phone rings, right? I'm wondering if things are the same way in Europe or in Australia... how is text billing being handled on your end? I know that here, texting is HUGE. It's a great way of telling your parents you love 'em while evading the nag

 

Someone told me that in Europe, Text messages actually arrive on each persons phone as a kind of unopened message...and that you're only charged if you open up the message. Sounds fair. Is this the case?

 

 

gogo

[th3undon3on3 0]

I have to put £10/month on my phone, but get 300 free messages/month too, to anywhere in the world (I think. Only tried Europe), and it's 10p/text after that, although I rarely use all 300 free ones anyway. No charge for incoming messages at all, although it's likely I would if I were abroad because they have to pay foreign networks and stuff.

[Timotheus 416]

It's a standard in the US, thankfully the don't charge us with that here. No charge for receiving at all, well, except for messages in other countries, that will cost you...

So, there are still some good things left...

Edited July 10, 2008 by Timotheus

[Genenut 8]

I only get charged for the ones I open and the ones I send but I also have a pay as you go plan since I use my mobile very little.

[toret 0]

I only get charged for outgoing messages. I think the tele-companies here have some subscriptions that allow you to send as many text messages as you like for free. You only pay a fixed price for the subscription.

 

I know that here, texting is HUGE. It's a great way of telling your parents you love 'em while evading the nag

[trd 0]

I got verizon with a 200msg for like $20 and 10cent for each over. wife has unlimited through her sprint, not sure of cost. she kept her plan based out of san francisco area, as it is alot cheaper than the ones offered in the colorado area. we figured they had alot more competition in the more saturated markets.

[fRACTAL 0]

Thank god we don't have that here, I wouldnt be able to afford my phone.

We don't pay for recieving texts at all, only sending them

(I also get 300 free texts for £10 a month, coincidences eh undone, you aren't on orange are you?)

~Doom

[th3undon3on3 0]

Nope, I'm on O2. They give me other stuff at random too. I got half price calls a while back, and I remember one time they gave us a day of free calls to any network. I nearly melted my ear that day

[gogoblender 3,071]

heh, this is all over the radio now. And apparently the two companies have been called into Ottawa for "discussions" regarding their pricing. I'm hoping myself that they'll soon fix functionality of incoming so that peeps have the choice of whether to pay for a message incoming or outgoing. It's the choice that's important to me, and regarding all of the angry callers that Bell centers have been getting regarding the change in pricing, and with huge numbers of people now, in fact, taking messaging option off their phone as they don't want to be charged for messages that they never asked to receive, is probably a good indicator that a lot of peeps aren't happy, and that this could/would be rethunked.

 

And... wow, you guys in Europe have it pretty expensive. Here in Canada, the rate that Bell was giving was 10.00 for 2500 messages, both incoming and outgoing.

 

I'm comparing this to prices you guys have for you bundles.

 

Maybe I won't complain anymore

 

 

gogo

[th3undon3on3 0]

Gogo, there's a general rule in Europe, especially the UK, that states that anything decent is invariably more expensive than you can afford.

[Llama8 8]

Bearing in mind how much data is actually shifted around for a text message, I'm surprised that they aren't virtially free. I'm sure there are a lot of text messages being punted around by the various networks, but the individual messages are probably a few bytes to a few hundred bytes.

[myles 2]

I agreed, whoever invented that is genius... a service that isn't worth the price, but popular anyway.

 

I like it to some degree, but ads is a huge problem here, and there are not yet a law for spam. HK is losing the whatever little democratic efficiency we have I think.

[gogoblender 3,071]

Did some more research on this. Bell, stands to make more than 6.75 million dollars...per day. Peeps have sworn, they will call Bell daily to report the price increase as a harassment, and that the companies are gouging. And Bell has reported that

 

From http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/s...ed-441d51cc0b79

 

"Cellphone subscribers sent 4.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, close to the annual total of 4.3 billion sent in 2006 and on track to surpass the 10.1 billion sent last year.

 

Association spokesman Marc Choma said the phenomenon has moved beyond the teenage crowd -- known as the "early adopters" -- to parents, who use it as a "family management tool."

 

Telus Mobility spokesperson AJ Gratton cites this rapid growth as the reason for the new charge.

 

"The growth in text messages has been nothing short of phenomenal," Ms. Gratton said, noting Canadians send more than 45 million text messages per day. "This volume places tremendous demands on our network and we can't afford to provide this service for free anymore.""

 

As you can see, there is a basicness, a wonderfulness about texts that peeps enjoy. I've asked myself what it is so many times, trying to understand the phenomenon. I think this need for humans to feel like they're just a few touches away from winks, giggles or pokes is just too compelling.

 

One of my friends, referred to the net as a "manufactured telapathy" something that can keep us grounded, and feeling like we're a part of a community, no matter how far away they are. If a manufactured telepathy like this begins to get gouged... how far are companies from the horrors of a "talk tax"...where every word we utters costs us money?

 

 

gogo