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Messaging Apps, VoIP Already Eating Into Carrier Revenue
An anonymous reader writes "A new breed of messaging services and mobile Voice over IP clients like Skype are already eating into carrier revenues according to a new study. '... one-third of carriers are already seeing voice traffic and SMS revenue decline as a result of the increased popularity of third-party solutions. ... For years, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger service has been one of the top features consumers and enterprise users loved about BlackBerry devices. It took much longer than some expected, but other vendors and third-party developers have finally come out in full force with competing services that provide SMS-like messaging over data networks at little or no cost to the user."
Is that the data messaging probably costs the carrier more than SMS...
My text usage has dropped about 85% now that iMessage is automatically taking every iPhone user's texts over the Apple's server systems. Pretty handy.
"liberty and justice for all those who can afford it"
Here in the Netherlands all 3 major mobile carriers recently raised their prices (and/or lowered their download limit) within a few weeks of each other. Vodafone cited falling SMS revenue due to WhatsApp. This isn't surprising; I send maybe 3 text messages a month now compared to about 1,000 using WhatsApp.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Between the 1 2 combination of Google Voice and GrooveIP, Verizon is "losing" a ton of revenue from me. My text messaging needs are natively handled by Google Voice and with some help from the grooveip app, Google Voice handles my voip needs as well. I just turned off my texting carrier plan and cranked my minutes to the absolute minimum. Fortunately I'm grandfathered in on an unlimited data plan from Verizon to make this all possible. I have unlimited monthly calling minutes and messages on the lowest plan Verizon carries. I just carry my OG Droid around as a glorified Mi-Fi and keep my Nexus S tethered. You wouldn't even realize theNexus doesn't have a similar card the system works so well.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
So shortly after all of the major carriers dropped the even slightly reasonable SMS plans, people started using the hacky but free alternatives? What a shocker. This seems like a classic example of what happens when you price yourself right out of the market.
I read the internet for the articles.
I can't receive random pictures and videos over text messages with Google Voice you say? That's a feature!
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
All the solutions I'm aware of lack Picture Capability...
iOS 5's iMessage supports sending of photos and videos. Chances are I won't have an SMS plan much longer.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You gouge the prices to unreasonable levels (especially on a sub-par service), people are going to find a way around paying.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I thought the whole point was that SMS uses the remainder of the defined packet size that's otherwise filled with null characters because of the nature of the packet sizes that were chosen when this kind of radio communication was implemented... In short, SMS costs nothing when the data is already being transmitted OTA anyway...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
just shouts "more money than brains." It was on /. a while back. (! yr? 2 yrs? more?) Somebody costed out what people were paying for texting, and on a per-byte basis, it cost more than what NASA paid to communicate with the space telescope. I never could understand people putting up with that. Voip + wifi for me since about 2005.
1-Imagine if people could get unlimited data plan not for their Smartphone but at home.
2-Imagine if many (not most or all) people offered limited but free WIFI to Cell phones. (Don't ask how, just follow me on this)
3-Few people would need a data plan at all on their SmartPhones
4-Cell phone providers would have to lower their rates or die.
However, with great corruption comes draconian laws.
Therefore, cell phone providers have little to fear.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Keep in mind that for everyone who wants a dumb pipe, there's someone who wants America Online, even if they have no idea why they want it.
That's how all of these "features" that cell phone companies concoct manage to keep customers coming in.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
There IS NO channel load for SMS. Every time you phone says "hello, I'm here", it receives an equivalent of an ACK with SMS WITHIN THE SAME PACKET.
So you can receive as many sms as times as your network knows in which antenna you are, without using a single extra byte from them, because that would be zero-filled otherwise.
If there is such a thing as an immense scam right now, it is SMS.
Fuck 'em! They get what they deserve. Maybe one or two might even learn to charge a fair prices.
T-Mobile added a per MB data plan to my service when I specifically set up my plan 2 years ago to have no data component. I told them that I did not what my phone to be able to access the Internet and surprise me with charges. Everything was fine until me last bill, when I had $40 of data charges. They had added an on demand data plan to my service and like any good smart phone when it couldn't get wifi it went ahead and used the mobile carrier, and racked up a big bill. I think that is their way of upping revenue.
1-Imagine if people could get unlimited data plan not for their Smartphone but at home.
2-Imagine if many (not most or all) people offered limited but free WIFI to Cell phones. (Don't ask how, just follow me on this)
3-Few people would need a data plan at all on their SmartPhones
4-Cell phone providers would have to lower their rates or die.
However, with great corruption comes draconian laws.
Therefore, cell phone providers have little to fear.
Part of what you're asking for is already taking shape - a cell service provider (well ok, reseller - I think they use Sprint's network) leveraging Wifi to sell an unlimited everything cell plan for $19/month:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/07/republic-wireless-officially-unveils-19month-service-unlimited-everything-no-contracts/
The catch is, you have to do most of your calls/text/data while on Wifi and (for now) it only works on their specific phones. They'll drop you if you start using significant cellular network resources.
But it sounds like a great plan for me, where most of the time I use my phone I'm either at home or work where I've got good Wifi coverage, but when I'm on the road and need to pull up a Google map or make a call, I still have the cellular network to fall back on.
There's Google Voice for that.
For years the American Consumer has been saying "We want to pay the same amount every month for a service, worry-free about overages. We want predictability. We want to be able to budget and plan ahead." It makes sense, right? But for some reason, we can hand these companies over a fairly large sum, more than we'd pay if we really fine-tuned our service preferences, and they'll still want more out of us. The SMS thing, in particular, kills me just on the grounds that we are just handing them over pure profit. Yet they still keep upping the prices on it.
I was really happy to see people stand up and tell the banks NO to the debit card fees. I can't help but hope that we start stepping up more to fight all this nickel-and-diming. I think it's time for me to start putting a little more energy into doing just that. I recently had a problem where Time Warner would call me every few months to offer me digital phone service. Each time I'd tell them to stop calling me. I had to spend an hour on the phone one night to finally nail that down for good. (To their credit, it has been almost a year and not even an advert has come through the mail.) But... if they do, I'm dropping one of my premium services. I like HBO, but I don't really need it. I'm wiling to bet if other people started removing upsells from their services these companies might settle down a bit.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I can not find ONE person on this planet that feels bad for them.
Gouging for SMS messaging costs, Gouging on Data costs, etc...
Boo fricking hoo Cellphone companies..... I'll throw a pity party in your honour this holiday season.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
remove things that people wouldn't be doing through normal carriers? Since it's free or super cheap, many epople are making calls that wouldn't have normally made.
I may Skype with my friends while gaming, but no way would I call them on a 'party' line.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
But they have to make up for the cost of billing you for it somehow....
Dear Carriers:
What you want the least, is what your customers want you to be the most: a dumb pipe.
Please get out of our way.
Sincerely,
Your Customers
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Time Warner tried to get me to do a contract once. They attempted to tantalize me by saying "a two year contract will lock in our rates!" I chuckled at this for a couple of reasons. 1.) They just told me they're raising their rates. 2.) Verizon FIOS is on the horizon.
I politely ignored it. But if I had it to do over again, I would have answered their request for feedback. If they really wanted me to sign a contract with them, there would have to be a few stipulations in place. I wish I had told them what I'd want in the contract:
1. There will be absolutely NO throttling of of my service for any reason. I don't do piracy, so if I do use BitTorrent it's for a legitimate reason. In exchange, you can disable that 'boost' feature that shoots me up to some ridiculous speed for a few seconds to make the benchmarks look good.
2. Unlimited means unlimited. Under no circumstances will my connection be capped. In exchange, if I was causing an actual problem, I'd grant permission for a polite phone call or email request to tone it down. That doesn't mean I will, but I'm actually a reasonable guy and don't need to be shut down. The odds are good that I'd just say "Okay, I'll slow down the Netflix usage a bit."
3. There will be no phone calls or adverts in the mail for new services. If I'm signing a 2 year contract, it means I'm happy with exactly that level of service. Should I decide I want to make my monthly bill bigger, then I can use my whiz-bang internet connection to find out what you're offering.
4. There's an expectation of quick turnaround when something breaks. My connection will not go down for more than a day. (Well, I'm not talking about outages due to natural disasters or anything like that.) Any longer than that and I have the right to break the contract without an ETF. Of course I'd be a lot less likely to want to do that if my bill for that month was reduced due to the outage.
They'd never go for this, and that's a shame. The real tragedy of it is I'd be willing to pay more per month if these conditions were put into place. They may see it as increasing costs, but they should see it as increasing value.
Oh well, I can dream.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I'm surprised things like SMS message plans and long distance plans have survived even this long.
Before skype was a small threat to long distance plans. It was alright, but you often had to be tied to a computer, or buy a special phone or wireless headset to use it more freely.
However, with the explosion of the smart phone market,, skype and other programs like it are everywhere and extremely convenient to use for the end-consumer. I haven't had a home phone in years, but even if I had one, I certainly wouldn't be calling anyone long distance with it.
calling cards have become almost unnecessary for normal day to day use.