I text with basically three people. My wife, my dad, and my next-door neighbor. All of these people have iPhones, so the messages go through iMessage. I do not have a text messaging plan. I send 10 to 20 regular texts a month to various people for which I pay $.20 apiece. The only text package available to me through my carrier is $30 a month. So, basically, iMessage is costing my cell carrier 20 some-odd bucks a month.
I just saw an article that said Facebook is releasing an app for Android that will basically iMessage through Facebook. In other words, the cell companies could possibly lose a lot more money on this.
Will AT&T and Verizon allow this to happen? Will they crack down on, start charging for, or disable iMessage and this new Facebook app? Do they even have the ability to do anything about it?
I think the US is vastly out of step with the rest of the world when it comes to text message pricing, both in terms of the ludicrous system of having recipients pay for messages (I know not all carriers/plans do this), and in the cost per message.
Most other countries seem to include literally thousands of text messages per month in even basic calling plans, so providers obviously don’t see texts as much of a money spinner.
And, as bouv says, lots of people have phones but don’t use Facebook, or have an iPhone but their friends don’t.
Similar text messaging apps have been around for quite some time, e.g. WhatsApp, so this is not really anything new.
I may be overestimating, but the number of people who don’t need text messaging is only going to go up, especially now that all you need is a Facebook account. A billion people have Facebook accounts.
My real question is, is there anything the cell companies can do about it? Is there a mechanism that would allow them to charge for an iMessage like they do for a text message? Or could they block access to Apple’s iMessage servers?
I’m sure they could, but I’m equally sure that the millions of people who have Facebook accounts and/or iPhones would just migrate to a different provider who didn’t block/charge for access. The loss of customers would vastly outweigh any tiny savings.
How many people actually pay for individual text messages, instead of having unlimited text messages included in their plans? I only have one friend that actually pays for text messages and I have a lot of friends that actually request a text response.
If it gets to the point where the majority of users aren’t sending texts through the official cell-carrier’s “texting system,” and instead use data, and then in-turn cancel their texting plans, the carriers will just up the price of the data plans. They’ll then say that the price increase is because of the “increased service and speeds” (:rolleyes:) that they are continuing to provide.
No, they’ll just jack up the other rates to compensate. Or find new ways to make you pay to do the same thing - make calls and use data.
Or maybe they’ll realize the gravy train has left the station, and make do with less?
Basically they are in the same boat (gravy boat?) as buggy whip makers. Except, one major impetus for iMessage, I’m sure, is the ridiculous prices charged.
I remember sitting in a railroad carriage in Italy in 2001 and 2 kids about 10 or so were sitting across from each other, giggling about it and texting back and forth to each other (and others, I presume) continuously for hours. I guarantee that wasn’t costing them a dime or two every text. Heck, this wasn’t even the first class compartment, and that was a decade ago.
The only reason I use iMessage is because it is completely integrated with my phone. I don’t get a choice, if it is a text to a person on iOS it goes through Apple’s cloud.
If I had to even take one small step to use it (especially if that step required finding out if the recipient could get it that way), I’d never use it.
I’m certainly never going to allow a Facebook app that kind of integration with my phone.
I understand, though this may be incorrect, that txting is quicker and uses the same technology that allows your phone to ring within a couple of seconds on the outside of the call being placed. Other instant messaging is only instant if the data connection is active, which it is not always, so there is more of a delay.
If the above is true, txting wil be faster then im data services.
Also txting is universal to any cellphone, im servces require the user to have the same im service.
Assuming the services (iMessage and “Andro-message”) don’t come to some agreement to interconnect? IIRC the iMessage requires aN Apple system ID, same as teh iStore etc. Know that, and there’s no reason Apple couldn’t let you send other than dog-in-manger. Same with any facebook messaging app.
T-Mobile is $34.99 for 500min Talk Time and No Texting. 500 mins with Unlimited Texting is $39.99. That is only $5.00. Who is charging $30 for texting?
That’s what I’m thinking. I was confused by the OP at first and thought maybe Apple was somehow charging the cell company $20 a month for you to use imessage or something like that.
I have Verizon and I’ve had unlimited texts for… a really long time. I don’t even think they have any plans anymore that don’t have unlimited. One of my friends has some cheap prepay phone and I’m pretty sure he even has unlimited texts.
I thought gouging people with $0.10 - $0.20 per text was a thing of the past, but some people really still pay that? That’s crazy.
DH and I have Android phones and use text messaging (DH prefers it to actual vocal conversation :rolleyes:). Each of us has Virgin Mobile’s least expensive BeyondTalk package, with 300 voice minutes, unlimited texting, and “unlimited” data (speeds get throttled after 2.5GB in one billing cycle), for $35 per month per person. Since we don’t want to deal with contracts, this seems to work well enough for our needs.
It’s not crazy if you text only a few times a month. Even with unlimited texts being 5, it takes a fair number of texts at .10 a piece to make it worth going unlimited. I don’t text anywhere near 50 times per month.
To the OP, the cell companies don’t get a choice. If I pay for a data plan, I can use that data plan to send messages to people. they don’t get to charge me for sending a note that is similar to one of their texts, they charge me for an comparatively expensive data plan.