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The True Cost of SMS Messages

Posted by kdawson on from the call-it-$24K-a-song dept.

nilbog writes "What's the actual cost of sending SMS messages? This article does the math and concludes that, for example, sending an amount of data that would cost $1 from your ISP would cost over $61 million if you were to send it over SMS. Why has the cost of bandwidth, infrastructure, and technology in general plummeted while the price of SMS messages have risen so egregiously? How can carriers continue to justify the high cost of their apparent super-premium data transmission?"

8 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Adam Smith sez... by palegray.net · · Score: 5, Funny

    it makes more sense to talk while driving instead of trying to type a text message Just curious, have you watched people drive recently? Maybe it's just Connecticut drivers...
    --
    512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
  2. Re:Adam Smith sez...Hookers should be free. by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm still waiting for the reason why sex costs so much? Well, yer ugly, and you smell bad. Those are yer good points. Good lookin' blokes, what know how to talk with a bird, like what she's sayin', it's important like. We're the ones what get's it - and has 'em buyin' stuff fer us, too!

    Bit a cologne... A blazer... Listenin' a bit more than talkin'. Goes a long way, mate. Sometimes into the next day!

    Yer pal, Alfie.
    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  3. Re:As the four other posters... by esper · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's even more dangerous to be reading text messages while driving(or anything other than sitting down),

    Some of us like to live dangerously. On the rare occasions when I get text messages, I read them standing up.

  4. I wish it was the same in the UK by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why do so many people seem to have to phone someone just to shout "Hi. I'm on the train...yes the train ....now Its leaving the station.... bye".

    And then on the intercity trips there is always someone next to you that obviously uses his phone for business but has that really loud ringtone of Abba singing "Waterloo". He always puts his phone back in his pocket after each call and then takes 20 seconds to get it out again when he's called two minutes later.

  5. Re:A LOT of air on the prices by weicco · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is even easier where I live. I just type "pub 15" and receiver immediately understands that it means a hectic beer drinking festival at the pub starting 15 minutes from now, put on your clothes and get your ass to the pub. So the compression rate is enormous! It also helps that there is only one pub in the town...

    --
    You don't know what you don't know.
  6. Re:Adam Smith sez... by MyGirlFriendsBroken · · Score: 4, Funny

    Many countries (in Europe at least) have banned talking while driving

    Does this mean that I am going to have to stop talking back to my Sat Nav in a vain attempt to find out exactly what language Ken understands?

    --
    If you read a speed reading book, does it take you less time to read the second half?
  7. Re:Adam Smith sez... by Gadgetfreak · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you think CT is bad, try crossing the border to Rhode Island. I seriously think the reason the majority of them don't use their turn signals is because they don't want to reveal their plan to the enemy.

    --
    "No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
  8. hidden words... by pikine · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because it gives their SO at home an idea of how long they'll be, so they know when to put the food on.

    You never know how many hidden words are in a conversation like that.

    Translation: "Honey, I know you've been seeing somebody, but I don't want to know about it. Please get him out of our bed---MY BED---before I get home."

    --
    I once had a signature.