Text messaging rates increaase by 33%

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Todd H. - 21 Feb 2008 06:58 GMT

Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:

"Effective 3/30/08, AT&T will charge 20 cents for text/instant messags
and 30cents for picture video messages sent or received on a pay per
use basis."

The old rate for text was 15 cents.

I'm curious is this a lower rate for picture/video though. This
almost sounds semi reasonable.

--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/

Reply to this Message

Todd Allcock - 21 Feb 2008 07:17 GMT

> Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
> "Effective 3/30/08, AT&T will charge 20 cents for text/instant messags
> and 30cents for picture video messages sent or received on a pay per
> use basis."

Pleasant or unpleasant depends on your POV- this rate change will likely
result in an opt-out option for contract customers.

> The old rate for text was 15 cents.
>
> I'm curious is this a lower rate for picture/video though. This
> almost sounds semi reasonable.

T-Mo did something similar last year. They went from $0.10 for SMS (text)
and $0.25 for MMS (pixture/video) to a $0.15 "unified" messaging charge for
either SMS or MMS.
While I've never been much of a texter, $0.15 hit the spot where I'll
occasionally send a pic or video via MMS rather than screw around with
cabling a phone to my PC!

Reply to this Message

Mike M - 21 Feb 2008 08:31 GMT

> Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Todd H.
> http://toddh.net/

John Navas\
Well maybe you text too much, and your're not white...

Reply to this Message

John Navas - 21 Feb 2008 12:17 GMT

>Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>I'm curious is this a lower rate for picture/video though. This
>almost sounds semi reasonable.

Makes my old MEdia Works Unlimited package with 1500 SMS messages and
200 MMS messages look better and better. :)

Signature

Best regards,
John Navas <http:/navasgroup.com>

"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." --Gene Spafford

Reply to this Message

Larry - 21 Feb 2008 17:25 GMT

> Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Todd H.
> http://toddh.net/

Why not? It was ALREADY the highest cost data transfer on the planet. If
they'll pay $961.54/megabyte, they'll pay $1282.05 for text and I don't
know what data size to base the video calculation on. Text messages are
156 bytes.

These prices easily qualify as usury.

Reply to this Message

SMS - 21 Feb 2008 18:24 GMT

> Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> The old rate for text was 15 cents.

Ouch. Verizon is sure to follow with a similar increase. Clearly the
carriers are going to continue to raise texting rates until they can get
enough subscribers to sign up for a monthly texting plan which greatly
increases the ARPU.

I turned off texting on our phones as I was getting too many junk text
messages. At 5¢ it was no big deal, at 15¢ it was a bigger deal.

PagePlus is as low as 3.5¢ for text messages.

Reply to this Message

Thurman - 24 Feb 2008 18:02 GMT

> Just noticed an unpleasant bit on this month's statement:
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> I'm curious is this a lower rate for picture/video though. This
> almost sounds semi reasonable.

On my one year old plan I was being charged 10 cents for txt, 25 cents for
pictures.

With the voice price war heating up, revenue mining will probably shift to
txt and media.

Reply to this Message