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At what time has data ever been cheaper than SMS? That "Blue=free Green=10¢" would likely only have been true for people on really crummy plans sending a messa

At what time has data ever been cheaper than SMS? That "Blue=free Green=10¢" would likely only have been true for people on really crummy plans sending a message while connected to Wi-Fi. Data has never been "free". They would have had to show iMessage messages as green when sent over the phone network. It was to mark the "plebs" so the "plebs" would be blamed for any issues rather than Apple.

warner25 4y ago
I think that data plans used to be expensive (I avoided getting a smartphone until 2014 because of the costs), but once you had a data plan for other reasons (e.g. being able to browse the web) then messaging apps were a cheaper way to send a message on the margin. My cheap minutes-only plan with AT&T back in 2008-2011 charged me $0.20 per SMS sent and received, which added up fast with unsolicited messages, but eventually I found the option to just block all SMS to save money (yes, I was just oblivious to whatever people sent me for a couple years, and it probably wasn't good for my social life...).
GeekyBear 4y ago
> At what time has data ever been cheaper than SMS? Phone plans used to come with a limited number of SMS messages per month (or even none), and the rates per SMS if you went over the limit were beyond extortionate. >Since BlackBerry messages are sent as data, users do not incur individual charges for each message as they would through regular SMS texting. While phone companies have introduced bulk texting plans, many options still include caps on the number of individual SMS messages that can be sent. BBM has no such limit. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/why-is-bbm-so-successful-look-to-its-technology/article15042079/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/why-is-bbm-so-suc...
- josephcsible 4y ago
  > Phone plans used to come with a limited number of SMS messages per month (or even none), and the rates per SMS if you went over the limit were beyond extortionate. But wasn't cellular data priced similarly extortionately back then?
  - GeekyBear 4y ago
    It was certainly too expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as paying twenty five cents for an SMS message that maxed out at 140 bytes. Before iPhone or Android existed, Blackberry was very popular with teens because you got unlimited messaging on Blackberry Messenger included with the data plan you got with a Blackberry. Eventually there were cell phone plans where you could add unlimited SMS for an additional fee regardless of what phone you used. By the time the iPhone rolled around, all the American iPhone plans included unlimited SMS messages without an additional fee.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    >But wasn't cellular data priced similarly extortionately back then? I guess it depends on your terms. I had--I think--a 2GB per month data plan (which was actually fairly reasonable for mobile at the time) and later went to "unlimited" but I was still paying something like 10 cents per text for a time. I didn't text a lot so I just paid a la carte until I changed plans. Communications charges have changed a lot over time. I remember when long distance calls were something like $1/minute.
    - GeekyBear 4y ago
      > Communications charges have changed a lot over time. I remember when long distance calls were something like $1/minute. I can remember Verizon being sued because they forced handset manufacturers to disable Bluetooth for file transfers, because Verizon used to charge you money every time you transferred photos to or from your phone.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        The carriers used to completely own the entire phone experience. That's what really changed with Android and iOS. Walled gardens notwithstanding, you have access to a far less restricted and curated set of applications.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
    Yes, but if you had wifi iMessage was essentially “free”. I always though of it as message went over the internet, vs message went over SMS. iMessage was released 11 years ago now. Can’t blame Apple for what not considering what the toddlers of the time would eventually do with the technology.
kaba0 4y ago
Basically, anywhere in EU. SMS is unreasonably expensive/limited, on top of being all around shitty (like, bad encoding, utf8 chars taking up more space, the amount of time I had to remove ős from my texts so that it would fit in a single SMS), and is plain text for your carrier to read.

warner25 4y ago

I think that data plans used to be expensive (I avoided getting a smartphone until 2014 because of the costs), but once you had a data plan for other reasons (e.g. being able to browse the web) then messaging apps were a cheaper way to send a message on the margin. My cheap minutes-only plan with AT&T back in 2008-2011 charged me $0.20 per SMS sent and received, which added up fast with unsolicited messages, but eventually I found the option to just block all SMS to save money (yes, I was just oblivious to whatever people sent me for a couple years, and it probably wasn't good for my social life...).

GeekyBear 4y ago

> At what time has data ever been cheaper than SMS? Phone plans used to come with a limited number of SMS messages per month (or even none), and the rates per SMS if you went over the limit were beyond extortionate. >Since BlackBerry messages are sent as data, users do not incur individual charges for each message as they would through regular SMS texting. While phone companies have introduced bulk texting plans, many options still include caps on the number of individual SMS messages that can be sent. BBM has no such limit. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/why-is-bbm-so-successful-look-to-its-technology/article15042079/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/why-is-bbm-so-suc...

josephcsible 4y ago
> Phone plans used to come with a limited number of SMS messages per month (or even none), and the rates per SMS if you went over the limit were beyond extortionate. But wasn't cellular data priced similarly extortionately back then?
- GeekyBear 4y ago
  It was certainly too expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as paying twenty five cents for an SMS message that maxed out at 140 bytes. Before iPhone or Android existed, Blackberry was very popular with teens because you got unlimited messaging on Blackberry Messenger included with the data plan you got with a Blackberry. Eventually there were cell phone plans where you could add unlimited SMS for an additional fee regardless of what phone you used. By the time the iPhone rolled around, all the American iPhone plans included unlimited SMS messages without an additional fee.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >But wasn't cellular data priced similarly extortionately back then? I guess it depends on your terms. I had--I think--a 2GB per month data plan (which was actually fairly reasonable for mobile at the time) and later went to "unlimited" but I was still paying something like 10 cents per text for a time. I didn't text a lot so I just paid a la carte until I changed plans. Communications charges have changed a lot over time. I remember when long distance calls were something like $1/minute.
  - GeekyBear 4y ago
    > Communications charges have changed a lot over time. I remember when long distance calls were something like $1/minute. I can remember Verizon being sued because they forced handset manufacturers to disable Bluetooth for file transfers, because Verizon used to charge you money every time you transferred photos to or from your phone.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      The carriers used to completely own the entire phone experience. That's what really changed with Android and iOS. Walled gardens notwithstanding, you have access to a far less restricted and curated set of applications.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
  Yes, but if you had wifi iMessage was essentially “free”. I always though of it as message went over the internet, vs message went over SMS. iMessage was released 11 years ago now. Can’t blame Apple for what not considering what the toddlers of the time would eventually do with the technology.

kaba0 4y ago

Basically, anywhere in EU. SMS is unreasonably expensive/limited, on top of being all around shitty (like, bad encoding, utf8 chars taking up more space, the amount of time I had to remove ős from my texts so that it would fit in a single SMS), and is plain text for your carrier to read.