this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Nah I obviously use messengers whenever possible :D

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Where I live I haven't seen non unlimited SMS or calls on normal plans in forever.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I pay 15€ a month in Portugal for unlimited data, sms, calls etc and it even includes roaming in the rest of Europe 😊

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

A relative in their 80s with a dumb phone is the average usecase for me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What provider are you using? Both AT&T and Verizon are on the order of $80/mo for an individual, down to like $30/person/mo for a family of 5.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

T-Mobile prepaid. Mint mobile is also very cheap, but I think there is one cheaper now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Ah I should have taken into account that I am grandfathered in from the AT&T takeover. That makes more sense.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Holy smokes that's expensive :D 85 bucks per phone per month

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Huh, TIL. Thanks!

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