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err404 said:
I think they must do yes, along with calls. Its unbelievable

All US carriers charge for both sending and receiving :\. So the ala carte cost of a single txt being sent is $0.40.
It's actually cheaper to call somebody than to txt.

wtf how is that even legal or justified? id be broke just by a friend who keeps sms bombing me just to piss me off while i try to sleep
 
The texting package gets you unlimited mobile to mobile calling to any wireless carrier, so it's not like it's JUST a texting package.

More bang for your buck. People who needed 900 minutes and had 200 text messages can drop to 450 minutes and get unlimited texting for less.

At least it's not confusing
 
you know what I do with my AT&T plan?

I have 5 family share lines. We all live in the same house. I use two iPhones every single day around 4pm - 12am as a baby monitor. I do a three way conference call with 3 phones together (2 iPhones in the 2 other rooms) and I just use up the day time mobile to mobile minutes since it's free.

This is my I don't give a phuc_k about your network AT&T scum sucking b itches.

When iOS 5.0 comes out, hell, goodbye unlimited family text. I'm going to put a block on text messaging on all 5 lines and just use iOS devices to sms.
 
Probably for the best. I felt limited by the $10 plan anyway. Plenly of free texting options available.
 
Text messaging is the biggest scam in the entire communications industry. Text messages piggy-back on unused space in packets that your phone would send anyway. The actual cost to AT&T is effectively zero. They spend more money on tracking your text message use for accounting purposes than the text messages actually cost to send.

$20 a month for text messages as the only option can only be explained by lack of competition in the US and monopolistic behavior. AT&T's acquisition of T-mobile will only make their behavior worse. We need federal regulations to ensure that consumers are charged a fair price for text messages.

At those hearings, Srinivasan Keshav, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and an expert on mobile computing, presented a detailed analysis of all the expenses that carriers incur in handling SMS messages. He showed that the wireless channels contribute about a tenth of a cent to a carrier's cost, that accounting charges might be twice that and that other costs basically round to zero because texting requires so little of a mobile network's infrastructure. Summing up, Keshav found that a text message doesn't cost providers more than 0.3 cent.

Time Article on SMS messaging
 
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ALL text messaging "plans" are a rip-off.

They use such little amount of data cell phone companies should pay a user who sends a text message instead of making a phone call.
 
It's not JUST a text messaging plan.

Unlimited text messaging also gets you unlimited calling to ANY cellphone regardless of carrier. Verizon, Sprint, Revol, Boost, Simple Mobile, Tracfone, Little Jimmy's Regional Cell Service, you name it, it's UNLIMITED

How is this a ripoff when you can reduce your minute plan? Most people primarily call other cell phones with their cell phones, so they can reduce their plan to the minimum minutes.
 
It's not JUST a text messaging plan.

Unlimited text messaging also gets you unlimited calling to ANY cellphone regardless of carrier. Verizon, Sprint, Revol, Boost, Simple Mobile, Tracfone, Little Jimmy's Regional Cell Service, you name it, it's UNLIMITED

How is this a ripoff when you can reduce your minute plan? Most people primarily call other cell phones with their cell phones, so they can reduce their plan to the minimum minutes.

Not everyone needs unlimited mobile to any mobile, and not everyone needs unlimited texting (especially once iOS5 comes out). Once iMessage is widespread, I'd probably be able to get away with a 200 text plan for the few people I text who don't have iOS devices. But AT&T took that option away.

The removal of the $10 plan doesn't effect me too much, since I'm on a family plan with 3 lines and the cost of getting 3 separate $10 plans is the same as getting the family unlimited. But I definitely would switch to the $5/200 plan if it were still around.
 
It's not JUST a text messaging plan.

Unlimited text messaging also gets you unlimited calling to ANY cellphone regardless of carrier. Verizon, Sprint, Revol, Boost, Simple Mobile, Tracfone, Little Jimmy's Regional Cell Service, you name it, it's UNLIMITED

How is this a ripoff when you can reduce your minute plan? Most people primarily call other cell phones with their cell phones, so they can reduce their plan to the minimum minutes.

Uh, I already have the minimum and a huge amount of 'rollover minutes' that I will never use. Not a deal.
 
Not everyone needs unlimited mobile to any mobile, and not everyone needs unlimited texting (especially once iOS5 comes out). Once iMessage is widespread, I'd probably be able to get away with a 200 text plan for the few people I text who don't have iOS devices. But AT&T took that option away.

The removal of the $10 plan doesn't effect me too much, since I'm on a family plan with 3 lines and the cost of getting 3 separate $10 plans is the same as getting the family unlimited. But I definitely would switch to the $5/200 plan if it were still around.

Correct, but think of this...

With a family plan 1400 minutes or higher, you get A-List. Those A-Listers are now landline only numbers with the texting plan.

A family can theoretically drop from Unlimited to 1400 with the new texting plan and be ok, and save $40/month that way.

I definitely understand peoples' frustration with it, but I tend to focus on the positives. It's not just a texting plan, it's a texting plan with unlimited cell phone calling. There's a lot of value there.
 
I definitely understand peoples' frustration with it, but I tend to focus on the positives. It's not just a texting plan, it's a texting plan with unlimited cell phone calling. There's a lot of value there.

It's only "value" if you actually make use of what you're being required to pay for.

Let's not suggest that AT&T is concerned that they're offering the best "value" here. This is no different that the reason they dropped the 200 messages a month plan.
 
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Well I have the 450 plan w the unlimited text plus unlimited cell to cell plan. I use maybe 30 to 100 mins calling landlines but my cell to cell calls are over 2000 plus mins. Switching to this plan saved me a ton. I had 900 min plan before and 1500 texting.
 
I don't send a lot of text out but I do get a lot of incoming texts. I get texts from ESPN for scores, my bank, etc.... I used 1564 messages this month so far and I have 4 days left on cycle.
 
Text messaging charges in the U.S. are ridiculous. It's pure profit for the carriers. Think about how much bandwidth a few lines of text requires compared to voice, web, and streaming video. It's negligible. Now consider how text messages benefit the carriers by saving on bandwidth that would have otherwise at least have been an audio if not a video phone call. They should pay their customers a rebate in gratitude for the cost savings. Instead it continues to be a cash cow for them even as users use other messaging methods more often. Users are not yet to the point where a large percentage of them will opt out of text messaging and associated charges completely but it will happen soon. AT&T knows this and is cashing in while they can for as long as customers keep paying.
 
Who exactly texts 30 times a day? :confused:

College student here. I wouldn't even consider myself a textaholic by any means, and obviously summer is skewed since I don't live near any friends or classmates from school, but, regardless, just 4 days into my billing cycle I was surprised to see that I'd already used 504 text messages.
 
I'm not American, but I have a general impression that you guys more often than not have markets with a lot of healthy competition, forcing efficency and low prices for end users.

It makes it all the more baffeling, then, to witness how you get completely screwed over on phone contracts. I guess it's the fault of the monopolistic situation you have, with some few, very big companies in control, like others mentioned.

$20 just for texts? That's insane. Here in Norway I pay about $30 for everything - unlimited calls and texts + 500 MB included every month. And Norway is very, very expensive.
 
AT&T Has Lost My 3 Phone Contract.

I was only 5 days from moving to AT&T & buying 3 iPhones but now I'm just going to buy 3 used phones & sign up for Metro pcs. AT&T has just gotten to expensive & I for one refuse to pay their outrageous pricing structure.
The change in their texting charges is just extortion & I've had enough of all the Major Carriers constant plan changes / increases.
 
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technopimp said:
This is why I own a factory unlocked iPhone 3GS (purchased from Apple in Hong Kong) and use on T-Mobile's $49.99 500min/2GB data/unlimited text plan.

Oh don't worry, that plan will go away once AT&T has finished swallowing up T-Mobile. And they'll do it with a message like "since the vast majority of the recently acquired T-Mobile customers indicated they'd rather pay more and get less, we're implementing...".

Wireless phone plans, cable, internet, etc.-it's all just legalized extortion at this point.

Well thats why i own a factory unlocked iPhone and use Straight Talk for $45 unlimited data mins and text.... I did this the second i heard my TMO was gonna br swallowed up
 
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