Senator Kohl looked into text messaging price gouging by cell phone carriers
By Leslie Poston
Text messaging has become the communication method of choice for many of us, myself included. It is something that people take for granted while at the same time wondering why it is so expensive when the data chunks are so small. One Senator polled the cell phone providers to find out their reasoning behind the 100 percent price increases year after year.
You wouldn’t think the Senator from Wisconsin would be the one to look into the price gouging that goes on in mobile plans when it comes to text messaging, but Senator Herb Kohl decided to poll the carriers to see what their justification for the outrageous prices was. Unfortunately he was left unsatisfied, as each of the four major carriers gave him more run around than answers.
It may not surprise some of the more technically inclined to find out that text messages are relatively cheap to send. There isn’t any cost benefit to send any certain amount of text messages over another. The hardware that supports the infrastructure has become to cheap and holds so much data that there is no real increase in cost for an increase in use by the customer. Add to that that bulk of the infrastructure used to send text messages has been in place for years and has already begun to pay for itself, and the argument by the cell carriers that they need to meet rising costs with the exorbitant increases in text pricing plans is shown to be bunk.
If you, like me, pay for a bulk or unlimited text messaging plan to handle your usage levels (I am between 3,500 and 6,500 texts a month, easily, depending on my work load or travel schedule), you may think you are getting a deal, but some who have looked into the issue suggest otherwise. They suggest that is costs so little to service the text needs of the customer that the current text plans are bordering on highway robbery, and predict lawsuits from customers as they begin to realize this.
I’m not sure it’s lawsuit worthy, really, but I do think there needs to be a sea change in how online and mobile data costs of all types are passed on to consumers. At the moment the cost is prohibitive, which is stunting growth and adoption of much needed mobile technologies currently being developed that could revolutionize how we connect and how we live and work.
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January 8th, 2009
If it was cost prohibitive, you wouldn’t be writing this article, and I wouldn’t be reading this. If the cost of texting was so out of whack, it wouldn’t be an issue because there would be no market for it.
What will limit growth is the absolutely stupid practice of government deciding the allowable profit private industries can make on nonessential product. If you feel overcharged, don’t use the product and the price will follow.
It’s not air, water or food.
Apple is making high profits on the merchandise it sells. Does that mean we should find out the cost of manufacturing an iPhone and sue Apple because of it? Every other manufacturer of computers seems to be doing just fine with 15% margins. It’s an outrage.
If you want R&D to stop, just keep punishing the people who take the initial risks and limit the potential rewards to do so. How many dead ends and wasted resources did it take for the current tech to become viable?