I look at it this way - Locust has provided really cool community features over SMS since 1996, years before the networks had a clue about it. I could send and receive emails, chat to people at the other end of the country, check the lottery results and do all kinds of great stuff. All I had to do was pay 3quid/month plus my SMS charges
On top of that I got privacy with a username, so if any creepy idiot wanted to stalk me they would find it impossible unless I gave them my number.
I still had to pay for the SMS I sent, which averaged between 500 and 700 per month!!!
How much does it cost Orange to send them? Bugger all, they are covering their operating costs and probably making a 1000% profit on each SMS sent even at the moment.
Vodafone for instance recently announced a hefty increase in turnover, mainly from SMS. Moreover, the technology for SMS was something that came as an added bonus for them when they built their network - it wasn't something they invested in deliberately and they own all their transmitters so *where* are their operating costs? They would have to maintain the network for vox traffic anyway - come on!
Locust is a community that is regularly sending hundreds of chargeable SMS' per person, per week and encouraging people to use SMS. It is going to get removed because Orange claim they want even more money, but its far more likely they just want to kill it off as competition to services they intend to launch in the near future. At a point in time when there are millions of SMS being sent everyday, do they seriously decide that the flat fee structure for this one small company is harming their profit margin? I don't think so.
This community swaps advice, helps each other out and generally feels great to be a part of. And what are Orange going to replace it with? A crappy pay per use SMS-email service, perhaps? Something that costs an absolute fortune to use, like 12p per incoming message when you get an email because they have to recoup the numerous billions they spent on their 3G licences? Or maybe an attempt to replicate the sense of community that Locust has been offering for the past 6 years.
Orange spokespersons have already lied, they claimed they were not planning on launching any competing services, and yet in their monthly magazine thats exactly what they say they are about to do - "new exciting services for SMS coming soon from Orange"
Pah.
The most ironic part is that Locust at it's height had a couple of thousand users, and half of those moved to Orange so they could use Locust (before inter-network SMS).
You keep talking about off-shore - what about Richard Bransons island? Can't remember where it is, but I'm sure he'd be more than willing to offer some kind of service. not sure about how you'd hook it up though.
Well, anyway, he's got a number of things going for him a) Shameless self-promotionalist b) Likes money c) Enjoys taking on the big boys (Virgin - Airways, Records, Net, and today, Virgin Cars in the UK:) d) Mad enough to do crazy things (balloons for one) to get press e) Enjoys a joke on the powers that be. f) All-Round Great Guy (TM) - for evidence watch 'Derek and Clive get the horn' to see Mr Branson wearing a big furry coat and smoking a spliff:)
Ahem. Anyway he gets my vote, now who is going to approach him?
Think of the publicity - 'Richard Branson gives Big Brother the finger'
IANA Journalist, but you get the idea. Wow, this is a great idea, I can't believe I thought of it:)
Slashdot Mirror
I look at it this way - Locust has provided really cool community features over SMS since 1996, years before the networks had a clue about it. I could send and receive emails, chat to people at the other end of the country, check the lottery results and do all kinds of great stuff. All I had to do was pay 3quid/month plus my SMS charges
On top of that I got privacy with a username, so if any creepy idiot wanted to stalk me they would find it impossible unless I gave them my number.
I still had to pay for the SMS I sent, which averaged between 500 and 700 per month!!!
How much does it cost Orange to send them? Bugger all, they are covering their operating costs and probably making a 1000% profit on each SMS sent even at the moment.
Vodafone for instance recently announced a hefty increase in turnover, mainly from SMS. Moreover, the technology for SMS was something that came as an added bonus for them when they built their network - it wasn't something they invested in deliberately and they own all their transmitters so *where* are their operating costs? They would have to maintain the network for vox traffic anyway - come on!
Locust is a community that is regularly sending hundreds of chargeable SMS' per person, per week and encouraging people to use SMS. It is going to get removed because Orange claim they want even more money, but its far more likely they just want to kill it off as competition to services they intend to launch in the near future. At a point in time when there are millions of SMS being sent everyday, do they seriously decide that the flat fee structure for this one small company is harming their profit margin? I don't think so.
This community swaps advice, helps each other out and generally feels great to be a part of. And what are Orange going to replace it with? A crappy pay per use SMS-email service, perhaps? Something that costs an absolute fortune to use, like 12p per incoming message when you get an email because they have to recoup the numerous billions they spent on their 3G licences? Or maybe an attempt to replicate the sense of community that Locust has been offering for the past 6 years.
Orange spokespersons have already lied, they claimed they were not planning on launching any competing services, and yet in their monthly magazine thats exactly what they say they are about to do - "new exciting services for SMS coming soon from Orange"
Pah.
The most ironic part is that Locust at it's height had a couple of thousand users, and half of those moved to Orange so they could use Locust (before inter-network SMS).
Orange suck.
You keep talking about off-shore - what about Richard Bransons island? Can't remember where it is, but I'm sure he'd be more than willing to offer some kind of service. not sure about how you'd hook it up though.
:) :)
:)
Well, anyway, he's got a number of things going for him
a) Shameless self-promotionalist
b) Likes money
c) Enjoys taking on the big boys (Virgin - Airways, Records, Net, and today, Virgin Cars in the UK
d) Mad enough to do crazy things (balloons for one) to get press
e) Enjoys a joke on the powers that be.
f) All-Round Great Guy (TM) - for evidence watch 'Derek and Clive get the horn' to see Mr Branson wearing a big furry coat and smoking a spliff
Ahem. Anyway he gets my vote, now who is going to approach him?
Think of the publicity - 'Richard Branson gives Big Brother the finger'
IANA Journalist, but you get the idea.
Wow, this is a great idea, I can't believe I thought of it