20 Comments

SMS marked up 4876%!

March 27, 2007 by in Random with 20 Comments

I’ve always wondered why text messages here in the US seemed so pricey. Now we all know why. Carriers mark up SMS (text messaging) 4876%… And we continue to pay for it!

Verizon and other cellphone companies mark up the cost of text messages by at least 4876% when compared to their rates for data transfer services. Verizon’s max text message size is 160 characters. At 7 bits per character, that’s 1120 bits or 140 bytes. Without a text messaging plan, those 140 bytes run you $.10 (ten cents), according to Verizon’s website. Compare that to the rate for data transfer (like when you would use your cellphone as modem). That rate is $.015 every 1024 bytes. That’s $0.0000146484375 per data byte versus $0.000714285714 per text message bytes. In other words, a markup of 4876%. Other cellphone companies charge comparable rates.

Any heavy text messagers out there? Dan and I send massive numbers of text messages per month. If you’re a heavy text messager, let us know how many you send / receive in any given month.


  • http://www.lamestuff.com spike

    I used to do between 2500 to 3500 txts a month, but now I’m down to around 500-1000 a month (haven’t really had the urge to txt).

    I pay $19.99 for 3000 txts a month. I also have an unlimited dataplan that costs me $39.99.

    I’ve got a Blackjack from Cingular.

  • Myke

    T-Mobile: I pay 14.99/Unlimited text messages.

    On any given month I send and recieve between 1,000 and 1,500 texts.

    I can also send at most 12 pages of 160 characters per page in each text message.

    Thats at most 1,680 bytes per message. (I’ve never sent 12 pages of text in one message mind you)

    So hypothetically if I was to send 750 messages at 1,680 bytes per message (1.26kb of data) and pay $15. Thats $.012 for every 1024 bytes sent.

    Thats an ideal situation but Im still probably paying less than $.10 per message. More like between $.04 – $.05.

  • http://cavemonkey50.com/ Ronald Heft

    Verizon is worse now. At the end of the month it will be $0.15 a text.

  • http://www.matkins70.com/blog Mikey

    Wow, I thought i was a lot when i was on 300 odd texts a month

  • Myke

    Correction: Not 1.26KB but 1.26MB.

  • Robin

    I’m on T-Mobile and I’ve got 300 texts a month for $4.99/month IIRC. I’ve gone 1 or 2 short of going over that a few times, but I’m fine. Usually.

    I actually switched away from Verizon — pricey, didn’t have good coverage where I needed it the most (T-Mobile, in contrast, has great coverage) and did I mention pricey?

  • Masta’ B

    I have a Tracfone…which is 0.3 units/minutes a text…A good deal on minutes is 120 for ~$15 [on ebay].

    At that rate = 3.75 cents/text. I probably send 60-80 a month.

  • bojon

    ppl who txt sms r retarded

  • Myke

    People who don’t bother to use correct grammar and type out words like “people” and “are” are retarded.

  • Mister Macphisto

    In Australia, the best we get are 1c txting (between phones from the same provider), which is allright, I send between 1000 to 2000 a month.

  • blot0

    also being an Australian, txt messaging can be quite expensive.
    i can easily do 1000+ per month @ 25c each. with calls on top of that it can end up costing allot quit quickly.

    we dont really have much in the way of data plans here, to expensive to be worth it

  • bojon

    if u gots a mouth and bought a PHONE with a provider… you need to put your mouth over the MICROPHONE and speak your voice into it, then …magic! …the person on the other end will hear your voice thru the other part of the phone called …the SPEAKER ..!!! wow i know, VOICE ! …it must be voodoo…wherez my garlic

  • Tim

    I send close to 500 each month, and recieve above and beyond that, averaging at about 2000-3000.

    Like blot0 and Mister Macphisto I also live in Australia and pay 22c AUD per text message, it can be quick expensive, that’s for sure.

  • http://www.clunkclunk.com ClunkClunk

    I can’t believe people pay that much for texting. I don’t text except when a call is very inconvenient simply because I’m too cheap to pay 10c per text. I can’t understand paying more for texting than I do for TiVo service.

  • Cynic821

    im anywhere between 1500 and 2000 a month. around 50+ per day that evens out too.

  • Homer Simpson

    I send loads of txt and I’ve just changed my plan to unlimited txt’s on Orange. I’m based in the UK so I don’t know if unlimited plans are available in the US.

  • http://thirdstring.com kibby

    wow I ust be behind the times. No more than 1-2 a month. And I freak out about those charges. Couldn’t imagine sending 1500 even with a BB.

  • http://uneasysilence.com Dan

    My all time high was 10,000 messages.

    But I average about 3k to 4k a month on my Palm Treo

  • Rachel

    yeah, with a sidekick, its at least 750 outgoing and 900 incoming a month.

  • Ohjiro

    In the Philippines, subscribers can subscribe to a unlimited SMS messaging prepaid service of 80 pesos for 4 days. However, this only applies to SMS sending within the same network. Assuming 30 days of unlimited SMS, a user would have to subscribe 8 times (7.5 time computed) in a month. That will be roughly 13.33 US Dollars (1 US Dollar = 48.02 Philippine pesos).

    However, texting to subscribers in other networks costs 1 peso equivalent to 0.02 US Dollars per SMS sending with 160 characters. That’s around 200 dollars for 10,000 SMS sent.

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