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Comments from Frankston, Reed, and Friends

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

BobF at 12:45 PM [url]:

Cost of receiving a text message going up 400%!

Just noticed this small note on VerizonWireless' site:
On August 1, 2005, the charge to receive TXT Messages will increase from $0.02
to $0.10 per message. This will apply to domestic and international TXT Messages
(and, if applicable, to any TXT messages in excess of the monthly allowance for
Verizon Wireless�?? TXT Messaging bundles). The charge for sending TXT Messages,
both domestically and internationally, will not change.

This is the cost of receiving a message so you don't even have full control! The charge itself is a trillion times what it costs over other networks. In fact, if you have Verizon's own EVDO you the few bits in the message are too trivial to count. They already charge 10�?¢ to send a message (above the monthly "allowance").

Another example of what the orifices (to use Steve Jobs' term for the carriers) can do just because they can.

Also beware, as they remind you in this footnote, that changing just about anything on your plan reups you for two years for with a cost of $175 per line if you dare try to escape their clutches.

Adding injury to insult, think about the amount of messaging traffic necessary to manage all of this billing information. It far far exceeds the traffic to actually send the message and I'm sure that the billing traffic is reliable whereas the SMS traffic is open loop and is not assured of delivery! This is an egregious example of taking advantage monopolistictic control of a marketplace.



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