Tuesday, June 27, 2006
For the mathematically minded, in units of pence per byte: SMS = (12/160) = 0.075 p/B, Broadband (2699/40000000000)=0.00000675 p/B, i.e. sending an SMS is nearly 12000 times more expensive than sending an email message using your broadband connection. [Based on a 160 byte text message costing 12 pence, or 40GB of data on BT Broadband costing £26.99 per month.]
posted by Glynn at 10:17 AM article and 7 comments
The Scurge of the SMS
As 3.3 billion text messages were sent in the UK in May, the mobile phone companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. For all of the fancy "next generation" features that they fail to impress the market with, it's the stalwart Short Messaging Service (SMS) that makes them the most money. At 12p per message, most of which say "lol" or "gr8" or "see u thr", the SMS message is able to sustain an extraordinary price-per-byte tariff. Comparing the price of an SMS with, say, the cost of domestic broadband, text messages seem to be ridiculously expensive.For the mathematically minded, in units of pence per byte: SMS = (12/160) = 0.075 p/B, Broadband (2699/40000000000)=0.00000675 p/B, i.e. sending an SMS is nearly 12000 times more expensive than sending an email message using your broadband connection. [Based on a 160 byte text message costing 12 pence, or 40GB of data on BT Broadband costing £26.99 per month.]
Labels: Phones
posted by Glynn at 10:17 AM article and 7 comments
7 Comments:
I'd normally agree with such an opinion, but in the end these companies really do have to pay for the services that they have developed infrastructure for. Of course in an idealistic society everything would be free, but reality is that people are willing to pay the 12p per message for the service. I don't pay quite that much in the states, but I think it is worth the small pittance that I pay for the convenience of sending a message wherever I am. It is worth not being tied to a computer. Realize that SMS users are really paying for CONVENIENCE, not the number of bytes they transmit. Convenience adds a big cost.
The real problem with the price per byte they're getting out of SMS is that they really really want to get the same price per byte for other mobile data services.
So try applying your price per byte to a full track song download for 3G and see what the operators would 'like' to get for transmitting it :)
I don't think everything would be free in an idealistic society. If something is free, then it is open to abuse -- just look at the spam email we receive on a daily basis because there is little cost associated with sending an email. In contrast I get relatively few spam letters. Infrastructure makes a difference, but remember the broadbank suppliers have infrastructure to build, or at least lease, themselves.
I agree with Paul. The price of an SMS sets a neat balance between allowing wide access, and preventing abuse.
Text messages are stupid until you start using them. Once you start, it really makes sence. Quick little mesages to one another without havin' to have conversation. Plus the cost to send e-mail via your mobile is much more expensive then the free SMS you get a month with you basic service with Verizon.
Hardly anyone in the UK pays the full price for text messaging. Most contracts come with so many text messages that it works out to be 3-4p/msg. Even people on PAYG get hundreds of text messages free/month.
I think a few start-ups have got the money-hungry telcos in their sights.
I just got onto a beta test at yoober,com for a new mobile messaging program that lets me send about 52 text messages for the same price as i pay for 1 SMS message (it uses data, but i dont have any included, im on PAYG, otherwise i guess it would be free)
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