Who is responsible for gravely expensive SMS data?
SMS messages are a huge money maker for mobile operators. Despite advances in mobile devices and services -see mobile web- they are so deeply ingrained in user minds that use is automatic in more than one case. And there’s no few people that prefer sending their new year or birthday wishes by SMS, although voice packages could make this contact very personal and with no extra financial burden.
And when I say burden I really mean it. With a limit of 160 characters, €0.10 per message is an enormous amount. In fact it has been calculated that communicating by SMS is more expensive than data from the Hubble telescope! But have you ever used SMS extensively outside your country? I have, and I tell you the cost really adds up. In this part of the world -i.e. with a Greek Vodafone subscription- it is a crashing €0.20 per message!!!! Before doing it you better have a serious incentive…
And all this for having to type in a small difficult keyboard with very little control over fonts. But to be quite honest it is not just the fault of operators, after all they just do their job. In my opinion SMS charges have not changed for years because:
- Regulators are very slow to respond to the new environment and let users get ripped off on a long term basis. Especially in the EU where infrastructure operates on a per country basis, there has been a move to limit roaming charges but not much has been done for SMS.
- Mobile users in many cases use SMS unnecessarily. I know lots of people that consider monthly DSL charges a burden but can easily and mindlessly exchange a few messages for the arrangement of a simple meeting…
So if you are in doubt check your itemised bill and check out how much money goes to SMS messages. You might be in for a surprise! What you can then do is switch important communication to voice or emails. Both can transfer a lot more info for you, voice is interactive so you can quickly agree on things, emails allow you to do so much more than 160 text characters…
If you are a SMS-holic you could limit your addiction to finance loads of gadgets, large and small. But the real satisfaction will not come from cost cutting but from the fact that you will show your distaste for a service that charges so much for so little…
