8 ms·

I've always found it peculiar that Americans have to pay to receive SMS's or incoming calls.

nhaehnle 12y ago
They even have to pay for incoming SMS? I understand the justification of paying for incoming calls, since they don't have separate prefix codes for mobile (which means that the caller does not know they're calling a mobile, and therefore you cannot put the charge on the caller), but incoming SMS, where you don't even get a choice over whether you want to receive it? "Peculiar" is putting that very nicely...
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  That sounds like it could be abused really easily. Can any Americans confirm if this is true that you have to pay to receive an SMS?
  - heywire 12y ago
    Most definitely. That said, most carriers have started including unlimited SMS in their packages.
    - mgkimsal 12y ago
      by "including" you mean "charging extra", right?
      - jcurbo 12y ago
        Yes, is it an extra surcharge for the unlimited plans. Typically you have a few packages to choose from, e.g. 100, 250, 500, unlimited per month.
        Someone1234 12y ago
        ATT charges $20/month + tax for unlimited texting alone. Which is about £12. For £12 (inc. tax) on GiffGaff in the UK you get: - 250 minutes Calling - Unlimited texts - Unlimited Internet (no tethering, or £10 w/1 GB and tethering) So Americas get massively screwed on their wireless services. The fact that tons of people on here are praising the insanely expensive "Unlimited" texting offers is just bonkers. For the cost of just your unlimited texting in the US you can pay your entire monthly cellphone bill in the UK, consider that. And due to tax, surcharges, etc the $20/month is actually closer to $30/month.
        Jtsummers 12y ago
        T-Mobile has a $30/month pre-paid plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (unsure about tethering). I really wanted to like the plan and tested it out in my area with a Nexus 4 I picked up for playing around with an Android phone (only had iPhones the past few years, so wanted it for both development and to see if it was practical for me to switch). Unfortunately the coverage sucked once I left the area since they didn't offer data roaming. Great along the interstate, terrible in the country (I often take the scenic routes when traveling long distances if I'm not in a rush, I hate driving on the interstate.). If I lived in an area with really good T-mobile coverage and primarily traveled to those sorts of areas it'd be an awesome plan, and similar in cost to what you're talking about.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        it's part of the reason i dropped out of the major player market (AT&T, etc) and have moved to a second tier provider (in my case, net10). my bill is 50% of what it was for essentially the same service (minus visual voicemail on my iPhone, but it's not worth $600+/year to me). unlimited internet (throttled at 2.5gig/month), unlimited text, unlimited minutes. $45/month = £26. Not perfect, but livable.
        nknighthb 12y ago
        No, all four major providers have included unlimited text in their standard post-paid plans for a while now. If you're still on a legacy plan, you might not be aware of this.
  - mikestew 12y ago
    Pretty sure AT&T charged for incoming text messages. It's been a while since I've looked at an AT&T bill (I've since switched), so it's possible that I'm mistaken, but I'd give that statement an 85% confidence rating.
  - sologoub 12y ago
    Most cell phones come with some sort of messaging plan, but historically yes you had to pay. The routing inbound calls you typically have to pay, but the costs are usually so negligible, most VoIP/landline provides include them for free with the overall subscription. Cell phones are a different story all together.
  - chaosmonkey 12y ago
    Can confirm. When I moved to the US, had to pay for incoming SMS. My friends who did not have an unlimited SMS plan, had SMS completely blocked so that they don't receive unwanted messages.
  - jonknee 12y ago
    Yes, but unlimited SMS plans are quite common and have been so for years.
  - klipt 12y ago
    Yes, but it's illegal to send unsolicited texts and there's a government website where you can report spammers. Also most plans now have unlimited texts (to send or receive). I only paid for texts when I was on the cheapest possible pay-as-you-go plan.
  - Jtsummers 12y ago
    It's true. $0.10 or $0.15 is my cost for all texts over 200 whether I send or receive them. Usually I don't go over, on average maybe 1-3 extra messages a month over 200. Upgrading to the unlimited tier for $15/month more doesn't make sense when I can reach all my friends but a few via Facebook, Google Talk or iMessages on their mobile devices. I can reach all my friends via one of those if they're on a computer but that's not always convenient, and no one I know uses twitter except to follow people. * With AT&T
  - adsfasdf23f23f 12y ago
    Yes. We used to get charged $0.25 per text with Verizon. Occasionally we would get included on a group text that would create 30 some replies that we would receive. I was not happy.
  - pkaye 12y ago
    Yes you do get charged for incoming calls and text. However most wireless carriers are now pushing plans with unlimited talk, text and data.
  - tinbad 12y ago
    I don't know anyone who gets charged for receiving SMS in 2014 (and it has been like that at least since 2011 when I came to the US). All the plans I had (Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile) had free unlimited SMS (sending & receiving). I live in the bay area so maybe it's not like that in other parts of the country.
    - Someone1234 12y ago
      > free unlimited SMS Free ay? So you can pay them $0/month and send/receive text messages? No? It is actually over $100/month? Is that "free?"
      - Swizec 12y ago
        I pay $60/month for 3gb of LTE with T-Mobile and get unlimited texting and calling on top of that. I don't particularly care about the texting or calling so I consider it free. I'd pay the $60 just for the internet.
  - throwaway234 12y ago
    I can confirm it can be abused really easily. Back in middle school (2006? 2007 maybe?) me and my friends used a firefox macro addon and a free anonymous text website to send a few hundred vulgar texts to a girl that one of us had recently broken up with. The next day at school one of us got called into the office. The girl's parents had hired a private investigator to find out who sent the texts. My friend denied everything and there was no real evidence so no one got caught (turns out these types of shenanigans are NOT okay, and illegal). We had racked up her phone bill into over-usage rates and I'm not sure if the carrier dropped the charges we had produced or whether her parents had to pay. I can't imagine that night's incoming text cost being below $200. But now I believe most teenage girls in the US have unlimited texting.
  - ADent 12y ago
    Yes, I still pay by the SMS. AT&T wants $20/month for unlimited SMS ($30/for all phones on my account). They used to offer $5 & $10 plans, but dropped those options. It is nice to be able to iMessage w/other iPhone users. My wife is on a pay as you go (prepaid) plan and each SMS counts as a minute.
  - pasbesoin 12y ago
    Yes... until smartphone IM support finally offered competition that started to squash this particular aspect of price gouging. Many people still "pay" for SMS. When we had outrageous per SMS charges (yes, also for incoming messages), carriers started to offer "bulk" -- e.g. 1000 messages per billing cycle -- plans and then "ulimited" SMS plans, typically for $30, $20, eventually $10 / month extra. Now, more an more plans included "unlimited SMS". Not all, though, and total monthly bills that include such "unlimited SMS" vary widely. One also has to remain aware / beware of international SMS messages, where one's plan may still charge exorbitant per message fees. P.S. Back in the days of high charges, just be so lucky as to end up on the receiving end of messages from some romantic interest who thinks your phone number is their interest's number. Obnoxious, perhaps crass messages, and to boot you're paying for the "privilege" of receiving them. (Fortunately, the carrier's limited blocking options sufficed to squelch those when he wouldn't believe I wasn't her.)
  - daigoba66 12y ago
    Yes. However practically speaking no one who uses SMS really pays per message anymore. It's usually bought in packages (200 a month, 400 a month, etc), or unlimited.
meritt 12y ago
It's not all carriers and the vast majority of people simply pay for unlimited plans so it's a non-issue.
rogerbinns 12y ago
There are very good reasons (for calls anyway), and arguably the rest of the world is broken. I wrote about it here http://www.rogerbinns.com/blog/paying-for-incoming-calls.html http://www.rogerbinns.com/blog/paying-for-incoming-calls.htm... In short it is to with termination rates, area codes, and how people in the rest of the world get screwed but don't realise it.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  In the UK if it starts with 07 it is to a mobile and if it starts with 01-03 it is to a landline. How very complicated! Plus doesn't the US have hidden rates too? If I call someone on a landline and they're in the same city I pay less than if I call someone two cities over even though the two MIGHT have the same exact area code ("long distance"). > Cellular was easily rolled out without disruption. An existing number could switch to cellular and no one else would have to know or care. If you were a business (eg a plumber) you didn't have to worry about people calling you fretting over getting charged more for the call than your competitors. > Numbers are easily portable. You can switch any number to use cellular. Countries using the other scheme can have portability but usually it is limited to cellular area codes only. That's a non-issue. Call forwarding exists outside the US too(!). You can buy generic numbers, or a landline that forwards to your cellphone (or rings at both). But ultimately your entire argument is defeated by one fact: In the US when a telemarketer calls you YOU pay for the pleasure. You're literally paying for people to spam or hassle you.
  - MichaelGG 12y ago
    The US is FULL of hidden rates! In fact, you can make a huge killing exploiting these things, and a lot people do exactly that. Some areas in the US cost multiple cents per minute. There is no such such as a flat rate to the US. People sell it, but they're just hoping you call cheap places, and if you don't, they cut you off. It surprises me how few people can do that math and love paying a flat rate. That's why so many free conference call places were in Iowa. They were exploiting the 5 cent tariffs Iowa had published in combination with people expecting all of the US to cost the same. Big carriers stopped terminating the calls, but the FCC slapped them back and insisted they had to terminate such calls.
richardw 12y ago
It might be a holdover from "car phones", where incoming calls were charged for. Very few had them and it could be assumed that the owner had enough cash to pay for the privilege. IIRC the US had some version of cell phones before e.g. Europe, so probably kept the same business models. The rest of the world was able to rethink the model and with the benefits of hindsight, created cell-specific phone numbers and were able to charge callers rather than phone owners the extra portion.

They even have to pay for incoming SMS? I understand the justification of paying for incoming calls, since they don't have separate prefix codes for mobile (which means that the caller does not know they're calling a mobile, and therefore you cannot put the charge on the caller), but incoming SMS, where you don't even get a choice over whether you want to receive it? "Peculiar" is putting that very nicely...

k-mcgrady 12y ago
That sounds like it could be abused really easily. Can any Americans confirm if this is true that you have to pay to receive an SMS?
- heywire 12y ago
  Most definitely. That said, most carriers have started including unlimited SMS in their packages.
  - mgkimsal 12y ago
    by "including" you mean "charging extra", right?
    - jcurbo 12y ago
      Yes, is it an extra surcharge for the unlimited plans. Typically you have a few packages to choose from, e.g. 100, 250, 500, unlimited per month.
      - Someone1234 12y ago
        ATT charges $20/month + tax for unlimited texting alone. Which is about £12. For £12 (inc. tax) on GiffGaff in the UK you get: - 250 minutes Calling - Unlimited texts - Unlimited Internet (no tethering, or £10 w/1 GB and tethering) So Americas get massively screwed on their wireless services. The fact that tons of people on here are praising the insanely expensive "Unlimited" texting offers is just bonkers. For the cost of just your unlimited texting in the US you can pay your entire monthly cellphone bill in the UK, consider that. And due to tax, surcharges, etc the $20/month is actually closer to $30/month.
        Jtsummers 12y ago
        T-Mobile has a $30/month pre-paid plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (unsure about tethering). I really wanted to like the plan and tested it out in my area with a Nexus 4 I picked up for playing around with an Android phone (only had iPhones the past few years, so wanted it for both development and to see if it was practical for me to switch). Unfortunately the coverage sucked once I left the area since they didn't offer data roaming. Great along the interstate, terrible in the country (I often take the scenic routes when traveling long distances if I'm not in a rush, I hate driving on the interstate.). If I lived in an area with really good T-mobile coverage and primarily traveled to those sorts of areas it'd be an awesome plan, and similar in cost to what you're talking about.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        it's part of the reason i dropped out of the major player market (AT&T, etc) and have moved to a second tier provider (in my case, net10). my bill is 50% of what it was for essentially the same service (minus visual voicemail on my iPhone, but it's not worth $600+/year to me). unlimited internet (throttled at 2.5gig/month), unlimited text, unlimited minutes. $45/month = £26. Not perfect, but livable.
      - nknighthb 12y ago
        No, all four major providers have included unlimited text in their standard post-paid plans for a while now. If you're still on a legacy plan, you might not be aware of this.
- mikestew 12y ago
  Pretty sure AT&T charged for incoming text messages. It's been a while since I've looked at an AT&T bill (I've since switched), so it's possible that I'm mistaken, but I'd give that statement an 85% confidence rating.
- sologoub 12y ago
  Most cell phones come with some sort of messaging plan, but historically yes you had to pay. The routing inbound calls you typically have to pay, but the costs are usually so negligible, most VoIP/landline provides include them for free with the overall subscription. Cell phones are a different story all together.
- chaosmonkey 12y ago
  Can confirm. When I moved to the US, had to pay for incoming SMS. My friends who did not have an unlimited SMS plan, had SMS completely blocked so that they don't receive unwanted messages.
- jonknee 12y ago
  Yes, but unlimited SMS plans are quite common and have been so for years.
- klipt 12y ago
  Yes, but it's illegal to send unsolicited texts and there's a government website where you can report spammers. Also most plans now have unlimited texts (to send or receive). I only paid for texts when I was on the cheapest possible pay-as-you-go plan.
- Jtsummers 12y ago
  It's true. $0.10 or $0.15 is my cost for all texts over 200 whether I send or receive them. Usually I don't go over, on average maybe 1-3 extra messages a month over 200. Upgrading to the unlimited tier for $15/month more doesn't make sense when I can reach all my friends but a few via Facebook, Google Talk or iMessages on their mobile devices. I can reach all my friends via one of those if they're on a computer but that's not always convenient, and no one I know uses twitter except to follow people. * With AT&T
- adsfasdf23f23f 12y ago
  Yes. We used to get charged $0.25 per text with Verizon. Occasionally we would get included on a group text that would create 30 some replies that we would receive. I was not happy.
- pkaye 12y ago
  Yes you do get charged for incoming calls and text. However most wireless carriers are now pushing plans with unlimited talk, text and data.
- tinbad 12y ago
  I don't know anyone who gets charged for receiving SMS in 2014 (and it has been like that at least since 2011 when I came to the US). All the plans I had (Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile) had free unlimited SMS (sending & receiving). I live in the bay area so maybe it's not like that in other parts of the country.
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    > free unlimited SMS Free ay? So you can pay them $0/month and send/receive text messages? No? It is actually over $100/month? Is that "free?"
    - Swizec 12y ago
      I pay $60/month for 3gb of LTE with T-Mobile and get unlimited texting and calling on top of that. I don't particularly care about the texting or calling so I consider it free. I'd pay the $60 just for the internet.
- throwaway234 12y ago
  I can confirm it can be abused really easily. Back in middle school (2006? 2007 maybe?) me and my friends used a firefox macro addon and a free anonymous text website to send a few hundred vulgar texts to a girl that one of us had recently broken up with. The next day at school one of us got called into the office. The girl's parents had hired a private investigator to find out who sent the texts. My friend denied everything and there was no real evidence so no one got caught (turns out these types of shenanigans are NOT okay, and illegal). We had racked up her phone bill into over-usage rates and I'm not sure if the carrier dropped the charges we had produced or whether her parents had to pay. I can't imagine that night's incoming text cost being below $200. But now I believe most teenage girls in the US have unlimited texting.
- ADent 12y ago
  Yes, I still pay by the SMS. AT&T wants $20/month for unlimited SMS ($30/for all phones on my account). They used to offer $5 & $10 plans, but dropped those options. It is nice to be able to iMessage w/other iPhone users. My wife is on a pay as you go (prepaid) plan and each SMS counts as a minute.
- pasbesoin 12y ago
  Yes... until smartphone IM support finally offered competition that started to squash this particular aspect of price gouging. Many people still "pay" for SMS. When we had outrageous per SMS charges (yes, also for incoming messages), carriers started to offer "bulk" -- e.g. 1000 messages per billing cycle -- plans and then "ulimited" SMS plans, typically for $30, $20, eventually $10 / month extra. Now, more an more plans included "unlimited SMS". Not all, though, and total monthly bills that include such "unlimited SMS" vary widely. One also has to remain aware / beware of international SMS messages, where one's plan may still charge exorbitant per message fees. P.S. Back in the days of high charges, just be so lucky as to end up on the receiving end of messages from some romantic interest who thinks your phone number is their interest's number. Obnoxious, perhaps crass messages, and to boot you're paying for the "privilege" of receiving them. (Fortunately, the carrier's limited blocking options sufficed to squelch those when he wouldn't believe I wasn't her.)
- daigoba66 12y ago
  Yes. However practically speaking no one who uses SMS really pays per message anymore. It's usually bought in packages (200 a month, 400 a month, etc), or unlimited.

meritt 12y ago

It's not all carriers and the vast majority of people simply pay for unlimited plans so it's a non-issue.

rogerbinns 12y ago

There are very good reasons (for calls anyway), and arguably the rest of the world is broken. I wrote about it here http://www.rogerbinns.com/blog/paying-for-incoming-calls.html http://www.rogerbinns.com/blog/paying-for-incoming-calls.htm... In short it is to with termination rates, area codes, and how people in the rest of the world get screwed but don't realise it.

Someone1234 12y ago
In the UK if it starts with 07 it is to a mobile and if it starts with 01-03 it is to a landline. How very complicated! Plus doesn't the US have hidden rates too? If I call someone on a landline and they're in the same city I pay less than if I call someone two cities over even though the two MIGHT have the same exact area code ("long distance"). > Cellular was easily rolled out without disruption. An existing number could switch to cellular and no one else would have to know or care. If you were a business (eg a plumber) you didn't have to worry about people calling you fretting over getting charged more for the call than your competitors. > Numbers are easily portable. You can switch any number to use cellular. Countries using the other scheme can have portability but usually it is limited to cellular area codes only. That's a non-issue. Call forwarding exists outside the US too(!). You can buy generic numbers, or a landline that forwards to your cellphone (or rings at both). But ultimately your entire argument is defeated by one fact: In the US when a telemarketer calls you YOU pay for the pleasure. You're literally paying for people to spam or hassle you.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  The US is FULL of hidden rates! In fact, you can make a huge killing exploiting these things, and a lot people do exactly that. Some areas in the US cost multiple cents per minute. There is no such such as a flat rate to the US. People sell it, but they're just hoping you call cheap places, and if you don't, they cut you off. It surprises me how few people can do that math and love paying a flat rate. That's why so many free conference call places were in Iowa. They were exploiting the 5 cent tariffs Iowa had published in combination with people expecting all of the US to cost the same. Big carriers stopped terminating the calls, but the FCC slapped them back and insisted they had to terminate such calls.

richardw 12y ago

It might be a holdover from "car phones", where incoming calls were charged for. Very few had them and it could be assumed that the owner had enough cash to pay for the privilege. IIRC the US had some version of cell phones before e.g. Europe, so probably kept the same business models. The rest of the world was able to rethink the model and with the benefits of hindsight, created cell-specific phone numbers and were able to charge callers rather than phone owners the extra portion.