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Is there any reason, beyond corporate greed, for SMS messages to cost so much?

If I get it right, an SMS message is just a short string of data, no different from a message we send in a messenger. If so, then what makes them so expensive? If we'd take Internet plans and consider how much data an SMS takes, we should pay tiny fraction of a cent for each message; why doesn't that happen?

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[-] viking@infosec.pub 4 points 6 months ago

Because they can, simple as that. Or well, could. I don't think I have sent a single text message in a solid decade now, and received only 2FA messages and pickup codes for storage boxes when something was delivered while I wasn't home.

I really thought SMS is a remnant of the past at this point, just like fax systems. Working for legacy purposes, nothing more.

[-] Maeve@kbin.social 3 points 6 months ago

Are you kidding? Everyone I know, even the kids, prefer sms. You can answer when and/or if you have time or feel like it

[-] viking@infosec.pub 4 points 6 months ago

Nobody I know uses it, seriously. Every person is using whatsapp, and a handful privacy minded ones are on signal.

Not sure I'm getting your point though, I can answer on every single message protocol whenever I have time or feel like it?

[-] Maeve@kbin.social 2 points 6 months ago

I have a couple of friends and a family member on signal, the rest I text with, except for a neighbor who is too old to be great at it, and a blind friend. Oh and the elderly lady up the street. I guess my point is plenty of people use SMS, I guess it's whatever people prefer in a given area. I loathe voice, except on rare occasion when I speak with my kid or a good friend of mine, halfway around the world, but that's through signal, and it's always great to voice/video chat with him and sometimes his friends or SO.

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[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

They are expensive? I pay 10 euros a month and that includes 500 SMS messages and 100 MMS ones along with call time and Internet that I have never exceeded so I haven't checked how much it is.

[-] acutfjg@feddit.nl 4 points 6 months ago

I'd argue 10 bucks for that amount of messages is expensive. That's roughly 2 cents for 1 message. A text is so miniscule in the grand scheme of data being passed back and forth between the phone and a cell tower, you should be getting unlimited messages for $10 bucks. Of course corpos will argue against this

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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
175 points (94.9% liked)

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