Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Is Killing Text Messaging
An anonymous reader writes "We've heard many times and from multiple sources that text messaging is declining. There are multiple reasons for this (BlackBerry Messenger, Apple's iMessage, and even WhatsApp), but the biggest one is Facebook (Messenger). Facebook is slowly but surely killing the text message. As a result, the social networking giant is eating into the traffic carriers receive from text messaging, and thus a huge chunk of their revenues."
In Sweden text messages tend to be free (but only the first 5000 each month) with plans at about $21 a month (this example with 3GB data as well). I know the US is different (recipient paying for text message and such), but there are operators surviving without this huge chunk of revenue ...
yes
https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=224049364288051
What?
In the US you do. It was accepted on phone calls when cell phones first came out, because the caller does not pay extra to place the call as they do in some countries (if I understand correctly). This was more acceptable since I have the option to not answer a call. With text messages, however, I don't have the option to not get one. In the US, I don't know of any company that doesn't charge for incoming texts, but some do charge less for incoming texts than outgoing.
Your DSL, cable, or fiber ISP has a lot more spectrum available to it than any cellular carrier because copper and fiber act as waveguides. Therefore, such a wired ISP can provide far more last-mile throughput.
You mean like when Target told a dad his daughter was pregnant?
Also, you loose nothing. If something is loose you should tighten it as not to lose it. Although I guess in this case you sort of did lose a loose customer.
$5/mo for unlimited texting? Not from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile. It's a $20/mo add-on from VZ, AT&T and Sprint, or a $10/mo higher plan from T-Mobile.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Really? Where are those data?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#2010s
Are you being intentionally oblivious?
The murder rate in the USA is more than 3x as high as Canada, 4x as high as the UK or Australia, and even more than that for most of Europe. The numbers from Japan included attempted (unsuccessful murders), and the rate in the US is still 5x as high as it is there.
Russia is the only G8 country with a higher murder rate than the US, and there's no gun control there, either. Of the other 6 countries in the G8, all of them have gun control.
Because in the US multiple efforts at gun control have done nothing to impact homicide rates involving firearms. Not the NFA in 1934, not the FFA in 38, not the CGA in 68, not the creation of the ATF, neither the Brady bill nor the 1994 Crime Bill. Looking at correlation in the other direction, what scant major court decision there are that have upheld more progressive readings of the 2nd Amendement, have not caused an upward swing in the statistics either. Didn't see it when SCOTUS said firearms needed military applications to qualify. Didn't see it when the AWB section of the above 1994 Crime Bill expired. Didn't see it when the DC handgun ban was repealed.
Once the weapons are in peoples' hands, controlling who can buy them doesn't really do a lot of good, now, does it? They're already out there. No phrase in human history has been more misinterpreted than "the right to keep and bear arms", btw.
That still has nothing to do with my point, which was quite plainly that it takes a more vested effort to kill somebody with a knife than it does a gun. With a knife you have to really mean it. With a gun, you can point and click, and the person is dead before you've really realized what's happening. How is this lost on you?
I have a $5 unlimited texting package from Verizon and I'm always paranoid when I interact with a rep that they will delete it from my account. Like unlimited data plans, these things were offered once and as time goes by fewer and fewer people remain grandfathered into them.