Free Texts Pose Threat to Carriers

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Oh no, free text apps are going to bankrupt the major wireless carriers! How will they ever survive when they charge only $69.99 a month + $45 for data + $20 for unlimited messaging? My goodness, how will they ever get by with the lost revenue?

“There’s a huge amount at stake here,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, who covers the telecommunications industry. “They are undermining the core business model for an industry that makes most of its money from services that are high priced and low bandwidth, like texting.”
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From TFA:
Professor Keshav estimates it costs the carriers about a third of a penny to send text messages. Considering that the major carriers charge 10 to 20 cents to send and receive them, “it’s something like a 4,090 percent markup,” he said.
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Sounds about right.
 
Or they could quit being greedy assholes and charging out the ass for something that effectively costs them nothing.
 
Let them rot, I won't shed a tear. It won't be the end of the world and something (hopefully) better would crop up from the ashes...
 
I'm somehow tickled to think that, between owning a mere "dumb" phone and texting at most once per month (excluding one month when I indulgently texted 3 times to coordinate a wedding gift), I am helping to undermine my carrier's business model.
 
Data transfer rates for mobile phones are so ridiculous that you could buy a hard drive (any size), fill it up, ship it overnight, and discard the hard drive after the file transfer and still come out ahead.
 
Kharma's a bitch ain't it? No way I'm shedding a tear for the telcos. If wireless wants someone to they can go whine to about this to the telephone companies still trying to make a buck on POTS lines since wireless became mainstream.
 
"They are undermining the core business model for an industry that makes most of its money from services that are high priced and low bandwidth, like texting."
In other words, they're ridiculously overpriced, and could only overcharge us so much, because there wasn't any particular competition in the texting space. Well, now there is, learn to adapt! Competition is a good thing, people!
 
How does it cost a 1/3 of a penny to send a text? I'd say it costs nothing aside from infrastructure maintenance, and if you charge that to the data access, it costs nothing period.

Texting is just another big drill it in your ass scam, like ring tones used to be.
 
"If wireless wants someone they can whine to about this, the telcos still trying to make a buck on POTS lines since wireless became mainstream is a willing audience I'm sure."

Oh edit button... Where for art thou?
 
I have to agree with jiminator... also, that infrastructure maintenance has to include everything, I doubt it's only for texting.

I don't mind them making a profit, but it's ridiculously high imo, and they just continue to want more.
 
Steve said:
Oh no, free text apps are going to bankrupt the major wireless carriers! How will they ever survive when they charge only $69.99 a month + $45 for data + $20 for unlimited messaging? My goodness, how will they ever get by with the lost revenue?
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why r u quoting the canadian prices of cell carriers? It's pretty close just so u know.. lol
 
What a shame, companies that make money hand over fist will be short a few fingers. <rubs fingers together> The world's smallest violin is playing a sad song to mark the occasion.
 
Pretty sure the phone company had this same argument a few decades back when they stopped charging a lease fee for your phone, and every call you made cost money.

Here's a plan go ahead and charge for text, but then voice service should cost $20/month.
 
They charge what they want because people will pay it, people are so addicted to their phones now that they will pay a lot
 
jiminator said:
How does it cost a 1/3 of a penny to send a text? I'd say it costs nothing aside from infrastructure maintenance, and if you charge that to the data access, it costs nothing period.

Texting is just another big drill it in your ass scam, like ring tones used to be.
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Especially if you consider the reason text messages were limited to 160 characters is because the signal that gets sent to all phones to see what tower it is on, what kind of signal strength it had and other things had enough extra unused space within that signal to go ahead and put in a 160character message. So now instead of sending a bunch of zeros they now send messages.

So once the initial development of the software on their end to inject the message in the signal that was already being sent was finished, no other costs associated with it other then perhaps customer support. text messaging is very likely %99.99+ profit.
 
"Both Samsung and Google are reportedly working on services that would allow owners of their phones to swap free messages."

It's called Google Voice, and it's already available. A techie can even set up a VOIP service to go through it for practically free calls too as long as they're on a cellular network that's fast enough (LTE/HSPA+)
 
I thought about creating an app like this that would work across a few of the big platforms but I really didn't enjoy the thought of having telecoms carries try to kill me for costing them billions in monthly revenue.
 
schmads said:
"They are undermining the core business model for an industry that makes most of its money from services that are high priced and low bandwidth, like texting."
In other words, they're ridiculously overpriced, and could only overcharge us so much, because there wasn't any particular competition in the texting space. Well, now there is, learn to adapt! Competition is a good thing, people!
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Yep, they will adapt and shift the money they were making on texts to other parts of the contract and people will whine and complain even more.
 
The whole concept of text being an additional charge on top of a data connection is ludicrous. Texts use so little bandwidth it's laughable that you're even charged for it in the first place.
 
Google Voice free unlimited texts (and calls in the US) + txt2day.com = FUCK EM!

If I reallyyyy was cheap, I would just buy the cell data plan and use these free txt/calling apps to screw them over more than I already do!
 
ZOMG NO!!

What will we ever do when the Verizon's and AT&T's of the world ONLY pull in 25 Billion dollars per quarter instead of 45 Billion!?

WE'RE ALL DOOMED!
 
I thought the killer app was called email. Works with Android, iOS, symbian etc. you name it. If you have a smartphone, you already own this "app."
 
jiminator said:
How does it cost a 1/3 of a penny to send a text? I'd say it costs nothing aside from infrastructure maintenance, and if you charge that to the data access, it costs nothing period.

Texting is just another big drill it in your ass scam, like ring tones used to be.
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yeah texting uses the bandwidth that was set aside for the network maintenance im told
 
Billing texts $10 or $20 probably brings in $1B a month and costs nothing. It's the billing infrastructure that makes up most of the cost.
I don't understand how the American consumers let the telcos bill them for texting or for receiving phone calls. Many countries don't do that.
 
Greene420 said:
Google Voice free unlimited texts (and calls in the US) + txt2day.com = FUCK EM!

If I reallyyyy was cheap, I would just buy the cell data plan and use these free txt/calling apps to screw them over more than I already do!
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I tried google voice a long time ago, sent a few text messages to my wife, they arrived like 8 hours later thought.
 
I still use texts every once in a while, but the majority of my text-based conversations take place on Google Talk.
 
Now I have no problem with markup, that's how businesses make profit and stay in business, give people jobs, and it all turns the wheels of the economy.

But 4000% markup? F off jerkwads.

This illustrates a problem with American business, profit is never enough profit. You get HP CEO's dumping their main business because the profit margins aren't high enough, despite hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in profit. The fools.
 
I just started the process of encheapening my cell phone bill.

My wife and I have smartphones. We use, on average, a combined total of 300 minutes. The minimum family plan is 550 minutes for $60. At 10 cents a minute on prepaid, we'd pay about $30 a month for minutes.

We're grandfathered into the $30/month unlimited data. Yet, analyzing past usage, my wife almost never crosses the 100 MB/month mark, and I'm usually right about 450 MB. (With the occasional spike above 500 MB, largely due to illicitly tethering while on a trip.) The 'current' plans are 200 MB/month or 2 GB/month. Yet prepaid has 100 MB/month and 500 MB/month marks. Those are the perfect marks for us. So instead of $60/month at current, we'll move down to $40/month (if I pick 500 MB/month and she picks 100 MB/month.)

Plus, we pay $30/month for the family plan unlimited messaging.

Total current bill: $150/month.

But, we're not just converting to pre-paid, we're also porting our old numbers to Google Voice. We've already dropped $30/month for voice - by using Google Voice to have our mobile numbers ring at 'free' locations (home phone or on computer) we will likely save even more. The data plan will drop $20/month. Google Voice offers free texting. There's another $30/month gone.

Total new bill: Between $50 and $70 a month. (Varies based on exactly how much cell voice we use.)

Total savings: Between $80 and $100 a month. That's $960 to $1200 in the first year. That's a new unsubsidized phone plus a few hundred dollars each year.
 
fuck them and their core business model.. shit changes so they will just have to deal with it or offer better/newer services to keep revenue stream
 
I am currently in a bitter nasty ass fight with Sprint, and I have HAD IT with that shit ass worthless fucking carrier. I dropped Ma-Bell for these assholes, and what did I get for my trouble? A higher bill, and shittier service. For over two months my 3G speeds on the tower that I use here at home (apartment, full signal, the goddamn tower is right down the fucking street - verified by engineer that I talked to) have been 8k-40k with an average latency of 1500+ms. I can travel less then 2 miles and hit another tower and my 3G speeds are ~1150k down / ~800k up with an average latency of 350-500ms.

I can just barely get a 4g signal if I sit outside on my balcony and my speeds are better with a poor 4g signal then with a full 3g signal and I am sick and fucking tired of it. So, how much do I pay for two lines of this worthless shit?

$160 a MONTH.

I told the supervisor that I will not be paying the bill, I have been more then patient, and I have waited because I understand that things happen, but NOT FOR 2 GODDAMN MONTHS. "Well, sir, I am poling the tower and it shows that your QOS is 99% voice, and 97% data, so we are not going to let you out of your contract"....yeah...so to them I guess it is ok that it takes 3 FUCKING HOURS to download 20 MEGS of updates from the market, oh and I can forget streaming anything when I am here at home, unless I use wifi...but if I am going to do that, I might as well use my desktop.

Never again...NEVER AGAIN. I am going to terminate my contract and let the ETF ride, fuck 'em, me an my wife are going pre-paid with one feature phone for her (for ER's) for $30 a month and let that be that.
 
STrooperTK421 said:
I am currently in a bitter nasty ass fight with Sprint, and I have HAD IT with that shit ass worthless fucking carrier. I dropped Ma-Bell for these assholes, and what did I get for my trouble? A higher bill, and shittier service. For over two months my 3G speeds on the tower that I use here at home (apartment, full signal, the goddamn tower is right down the fucking street - verified by engineer that I talked to) have been 8k-40k with an average latency of 1500+ms. I can travel less then 2 miles and hit another tower and my 3G speeds are ~1150k down / ~800k up with an average latency of 350-500ms.

I can just barely get a 4g signal if I sit outside on my balcony and my speeds are better with a poor 4g signal then with a full 3g signal and I am sick and fucking tired of it. So, how much do I pay for two lines of this worthless shit?

$160 a MONTH.

I told the supervisor that I will not be paying the bill, I have been more then patient, and I have waited because I understand that things happen, but NOT FOR 2 GODDAMN MONTHS. "Well, sir, I am poling the tower and it shows that your QOS is 99% voice, and 97% data, so we are not going to let you out of your contract"....yeah...so to them I guess it is ok that it takes 3 FUCKING HOURS to download 20 MEGS of updates from the market, oh and I can forget streaming anything when I am here at home, unless I use wifi...but if I am going to do that, I might as well use my desktop.

Never again...NEVER AGAIN. I am going to terminate my contract and let the ETF ride, fuck 'em, me an my wife are going pre-paid with one feature phone for her (for ER's) for $30 a month and let that be that.
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I also had sprint for a long time, and Ive moved several times in my area.. every new house still sucked for service. They updated the tower near my last house, updated my last phone twice, and I still was dropping phone calls.. from 4 bars to no service off and on, even if I was outside in the street my phone wouldn't get service.

So since I deployed again I just canceled my service, I won't be returning to sprint, ever.
 
Xae said:
I also had sprint for a long time, and Ive moved several times in my area.. every new house still sucked for service. They updated the tower near my last house, updated my last phone twice, and I still was dropping phone calls.. from 4 bars to no service off and on, even if I was outside in the street my phone wouldn't get service.

So since I deployed again I just canceled my service, I won't be returning to sprint, ever.
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They "pushed" several updates to our phones, and it did NOTHING. Now when I try to update it just says it cannot and gives an error code of 1012. I'm done, but I'm done being mad about it as well...but I still like to vent. :)
 
pretty soon all of this will be gone. Days of telephone network are numbered. 10 - 15 years from now analog phones and the current cell service will be the way of rotary phones. Everything will be VOIP, you won't have a phone plan, you will have data plans. Then the cost of minutes, the cost for text, the cost of all that will go away.
 
I'm with AT&T and refuse to pay for texting. They wanted to charge $5/phone for basic texting which includes 200 free texts. I declined and had them completely turn off text messaging so I couldn't get charged. I use the Google Voice app to text between friends.
 
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