Comments on: AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte

By: Does Not Piss Me Off » Blog Archive » iPhone Features (leftovers)

Does Not Piss Me Off » Blog Archive » iPhone Features (leftovers) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:44:03 +0000

[...] included in my unlimited messaging — I’ll finally get closer to my money’s worth (AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte). I am more than unhappy about AT&T sitting around trying to decide how much to charge me per [...]

By: Content ShouldBe Important

Content ShouldBe Important — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:53:30 +0000

At $0.20 per SMS Msg I decided to plug that drain by disabling that feature. I’m on a flat rate – pay as you go to reduce costs. Would rather make the house payment, things are just that tight. ATT raised the rate, but that doesn’t matter, the content of the messages from my temp employer are distracting spam nor will they compensate. Reviewed ATT’s on-line billing. The poor billing report format discourages analysis of the charges just about as well as their web site discourages dropping features. Paying for receiving SMS msgs enables spam, paying for the ability to block specific phone numbers is … simply not a positive.

Call 1-800-331-0500 and speak the words “Customer Service” at the right moment, the automated attendant will not offer that option as far as I can tell. Nor will the live body inquire as to the reason you are dropping the SMS functionality. They do not want to hear what they already know.

Turn it off for a while if you can and enjoy.

By: Ryan @ Social Networking » Blog Archive » “Consumption Based Billing”

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:26:47 +0000

[...] sent), the public was fine with paying $20 per month for use of the service. In fact, according to TechCrunch, AT&T charges its cutomers $1,310.72 per megabyte of text message date. Let that sink [...]

By: zain

zain — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:07:15 +0000

I don’t think family plan 30 Dollar is a bad deal, I have connected my phone to recieve all kind of updates from Twitter. My family and myself uses around 15000 text messages everymonth on five phone which is total worth it.
Yes, there are many factors involed in charging that cost from overhead cost to other factors involved.

By: Pumpkin

Pumpkin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:31:35 +0000

Good! Charge away AT&T. These kids today would and probably already send THOUSANDS of text messages per month clogging up the bandwidth. That’s probably why people have problems with dropped calls, so much traffic on the air waves.

By: SMS is highway robbery « Mike Radomski

SMS is highway robbery « Mike Radomski — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:13:25 +0000

[...] left the conversation hanging with the per gigabyte cost of an SMS message. TechCrunch had this calculation based on AT&T’s rates: Today is basic math day at CrunchGear where we discovered that [...]

By: Text Message Price Fixing - How Wireless Providers Rip You Off « Erin Brennan’s Blog

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:43:20 +0000

[...] http://www.tech...0-per-megabyte/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)AT&T text message price increaseAt Last, US [...]

By: Manu’s Blog » Blog Archive » T-Mobile customers here is your chance to get an iPhone without early termination fees!

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:27:12 +0000

[...] It is the cheapest part of their service and they rake in the money with it. TechCrunch had an post about this as [...]

By: Why aren’t Unlimited Text Plans $1 / Year? « S c r i b a l T h r u m

Why aren’t Unlimited Text Plans $1 / Year? « S c r i b a l T h r u m — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:04:36 +0000

[...] for mobile Internet and tethering plans. It should be fun to hear AT&T defend why it charges over $1,300 per megabyte for text [...]

By: Alice

Alice — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:41:40 +0000

Extortionate prices!

By: Danette Loza

Danette Loza — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:26:53 +0000

Actually your numbers are WAY off.
For normal internet use…data at a pay per use rate is 1 cent per kilobyte.
meaning a 160 character text would be a 160 cents or $1.60.
So to charge 20 cents for 160 kilobites is actually less than you would be charged if you’re actually going by the data measuremeant.
And the rates for SMS are actually pretty standard and priced along with other carriers.
Prices for an SMS now range from 15 cents to 30 cents.
So basically…if you’re gonna use more than 30 per month you’re better off with a plan you’ll save tons.

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By: vap

vap — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:00:57 +0000

That’s wrong. Unlimited plans cost in the hundreds. So just divide that by infinity and you have the amount.

By: TPile » Blog Archive » Horrible Phones and Carriers Mean Huge Opportunity for Startups

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0000

[...] text-messaging system that limits users to 140 character per message and for which carriers charge usurious rates. The key? They focused on creating fun, easy-to-use tools that satisfy some human [...]

By: the tweney review » Blog Archive » Mobile industry presents huge opportunities for startups.

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:53:14 +0000

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Sun, 21 Sep 2008 07:54:18 +0000

By: whitemanuniv

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By: T-Mobile customers here is your chance to get an iPhone without early termination fees! » sneaker.org

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:40:27 +0000

[...] It is the cheapest part of their service and they rake in the money with it. TechCrunch had an post about this as [...]

By: Michael Johns » Blog Archive » Start the countdown…

Michael Johns » Blog Archive » Start the countdown… — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:31:21 +0000

[...] switch in Texas. You would think AT&T wouldn’t mind, since they basically make $1,310 per megabyte on SMS messages which should more than make up the bandwidth costs for a few people using a (gasp) COMPUTER on [...]

By: AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte | Your Financial Guide

AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte | Your Financial Guide — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:33:50 +0000

[...] data costs twenty cents then 1MB (1,048,576 bytes) of data would cost 131,072 cents, or $1,310.72.read more | digg [...]

By: Barriers to the social mobile web | Andy DeSoto

Barriers to the social mobile web | Andy DeSoto — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:32:26 +0000

[...] messaging is pretty much universally available to those with the resources to be social and mobile (albeit unreasonably overpriced). Make SMS the backbone of the [...]

By: O2

O2 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:07:24 +0000

i dont believe what i am reading!! they charge you to recieve a text message thats crazy!!!!
also the guy in NZ no way can they justify charging more cos it swaps carrier!! we send texts all day long from one carrier to another and it costs the same flat fee or free if you have a package, which means its not free but you know what i mean! i can even use my ‘free’ bundled txts to send internationally.

they would so not get away with charging to recieve a message!! why the hell do you guys put up with it! goto a carrier that doesnt charge you to get a text!!
one question, if you have a ‘bundle’ like unlimited txts do you still get charged for texts recieved??? tell me you dont!!!!!!

By: Dror

Dror — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:47:12 +0000

$1300/MB is a bit exagerated, as you ignore header and processing.

Network overhead can be 50% of traffic for such small messages.
Also the message is sent TWICE over wireless (from sender to network, and then to the receiver, which pays nothing).

however, even $300/MB is high…

By: Sleepy-Head » Blog Archive » SMS

Sleepy-Head » Blog Archive » SMS — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:55:09 +0000

[...] now that viable mobile platforms exist how long can the SMS money gouge model survive? Twitter, Facebook IM, AIM, none of those cost more than a grand per MB… Related: Why [...]