That must be based on a very limited experience. In the U.S. it was common up until maybe 5 years ago for carriers to charge 10c per sent and received SMS. And

That must be based on a very limited experience. In the U.S. it was common up until maybe 5 years ago for carriers to charge 10c per sent and received SMS. And that's still true unless you have a plan that explicitly makes them unlimited and free (which is admittedly most of them). If your carrier is e.g. AT&T you have to sign up for an international service plan or you simply do not receive text messages. The typical thing my friends do is pay $10/day for the international day pass. Crazy. It's why I bought an phone without carrier lock, and when I get to a country just buy a SIM (UICC) with pre-paid texting and data, I don't even car about voice. Since my U.S. number is google voice, the texts come in as data, and local texts are cheap or free in that country.