The wireless operators probably hoped the investigation, launched in September, over how they decide on text message pricing, would just go away. With the upcoming change in leadership and priorities, it still could. But a New York Times article that came out over the holiday weekend has stirred up discussion around the rise in texting charges, and whether and how they can be justified by the cellular companies.
According to the piece, AT&T Inc.(T), Sprint-Nextel Corp.(S), T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless over the last three years have upped the “pay-per-use price” for messages from 10 cents to 20 cents. All of the carriers declined the Times’ requests for interviews to explain the pricing and their costs related to their texting businesses.
But a Fast Company piece, with a headline including the words “Text Messages Are A Rip-Off,” today explained that texting, aka short messaging service (SMS), costs the cellular operators nothing in terms of incremental investment given text messages get what could be considered a free ride on existing cellular voice networks.
The article also mentions that while the U.S. government (Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and the chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee in September sent letters to the above-mentioned cellcos asking that they answer some questions about their text messaging costs and pricing) and The Times are late to the party in wondering whether texting is a fair deal, noting that European regulators have been on the job for some time and are now taking “some serious action” on this front.
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