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While price feels tremendous, there are differences with raw GPRS/3G data service, though. First, SMS is reliable transport. In case message cannot be delivere

While price feels tremendous, there are differences with raw GPRS/3G data service, though. First, SMS is reliable transport. In case message cannot be delivered, message will be hold in SMSC and receivers' HLR would notify SMSC to reattempt the delivery, as fast as recipient is available again. Second, SMS is globally routeable. You may visit another country on the other side of the planet, and the message will still be delivered to your phone. And one weird thing comes to my mind. If SMS are really that overpriced, why noone in Telco world announced really cheap SMS plans? They would instantly win huge part of the market. Is that some sort of worldwide cabal?

chadgeidel 16y ago
Because of collusion. Why would AT&T and Verizon compete on price in this area when they are both making a mint on this "service"? Why would a "little guy" drop his prices on this high-margin product?
metageek 16y ago
>First, SMS is reliable transport. Not particularly. I've had messages dropped a few times--especially when sending from AT&T to Verizon. I've also had messages delayed a day or more, which was as bad as dropping them. It's more reliable than some of the old paging systems (some of which didn't do retransmissions), but it's much less reliable than voice, which is its main competitor today.