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"Most plans for smartphones come with unlimited SMS nowadays..." Ahh, but that's the reason Whatsapp took off outside the USA. An SMS costs me 29c per message
by SyneRyder 13y ago
"Most plans for smartphones come with unlimited SMS nowadays..."
Ahh, but that's the reason Whatsapp took off outside the USA. An SMS costs me 29c per message, it's a big profit center for some mobile companies. But if I use Whatsapp, I get free texting from iPhone to Android (and other platforms) and my total monthly phone spend is just $5, because I only pay for data. Some of my friends are on $30 - $50/month plans... so Whatsapp (and/or Facebook Messenger) save me $300 - $540 per year by not making me switch to those plans.
Also consider that in Europe, "international" can sometimes be just a 30 minute train ride away. If you have many friends in other countries you might want free international SMS more than if your friends were all only in the same country.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI'm in Europe :) Specifically the UK. But I take your point it probably is how you describe for a lot of people.
- _delirium 13y agoI'm in Europe too (Denmark), and a lot of people I know here don't have free SMS, because a-la-carte plans with no monthly fee are very common, rather than monthly subscriptions. I pay $9/GB for data, $0.03/min for voice, $0.03/message for domestic SMS, and $0.35/message for international SMS. Unlimited call/messaging subscription plans do exist, but you have to use a lot of voice and SMS for them to be worth it. My typical monthly bill is ~$10-20 (almost all of that data), and some months, e.g. when on vacation and using a foreign SIM while not using my Danish one, I pay nothing. So it wouldn't make sense to pay an up front fee on the order of $50/mo to get "free" SMS.