Concerns have been voiced[140] over the excessive cost of off-plan text messaging in the United States. AT&T Mobility, along with most other service providers, charges texters 20 cents per message if they do not have a messaging plan or if they have exceeded their allotted number of texts. Given that an SMS message is at most 160 bytes in size, this cost scales to a cost of $1,310[140] per megabyte sent via text message. This is in sharp contrast with the price of unlimited data plans offered by the same carriers, which allow the transmission of hundreds of megabytes of data for monthly prices of about $15 to $45 in addition to a voice plan. As a comparison, a one-minute phone call uses up the same amount of network capacity as 600 text messages,[141] meaning that if the same cost-per-traffic formula were applied to phone calls, cell phone calls would cost $120 per minute. With service providers gaining more customers and expanding their capacity, their overhead costs should be decreasing, not increasing.
In 2005, text messaging generated nearly 70 billion dollars in revenue, as reported by Gartner,industry analysts, three times as much as Hollywood box office sales in 2005. World figures showed that over a trillion text messages were sent in 2005.[142]
Although major cellphone providers deny any collusion, fees for out-of-package text messages have increased, doubling from 10 to 20 cents in the United States between 2007 and 2008 alone.[143] On 16 July 2009, Senate hearings were held to look into any breach of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[144] The same trend is visible in other countries, though increasingly widespread flatrate plans, for example in Germany, do make text messaging easier, text messages sent abroad still result in higher costs.
Patrick Abboud
No comments:
Post a Comment