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- doiveo, on 11/27/2008, -1/+111I pay close to $100/month before L.D. yet I still only get 100 total SMS messages a month. It would cost $15 more for unlimited. They make close to 90% profit margins on SMS and it's killing the medium. How is that pricing module justifiable???
Hopeful there are a few prominent Twitter users that will get shafted by this and pressure things to change. - mizike, on 11/27/2008, -2/+98For additional proof of just how ***** up the Canadian Telecom market is, the CRTC (the telecom regulatory body) has no problem with Bell throttling BitTorrent, Voip, and whatever the hell else it feels like for all the DSL in the eastern half of the country (they still own all the copper from way back when, so they have the technical capability to do this regardless of who is providing the actual DSL service); so much for net neutrality. I swear, for such a left leaning country, our telecom industry is a libertarian's wet dream: The ogilopoly of Bell, Rogers and Telus do whatever they want, and the government sits back and lets them do it in the name of the free market. Whenever a competitor arises, it's either crushed out of existence or simply bought up by one of the big three within 2-3 years of it's entrance in the market, as a result we pay among the highest rates in the world for objectively sub standard cell phone and internet service. When I lived in Asia, both countries I lived in had state owned internet which was roughly half the price for significantly better service (ditto for cell phones), why can't the Canadian government step up and deliver the same thing? It's not like it's afraid to influence the "free market" in other sectors (for example, our banking sector is among the most heavily regulated in the world, and is also currently among the strongest; it's not a coincidence).
- RogerStrong, on 11/27/2008, -0/+52No good. Data service pricing in Canada is even worse.
And other than in one place, Telus doesn't even have data services here in Manitoba. - Ford_Prefect2nd, on 11/27/2008, -3/+54One reason I am almost praying that the Teachers Union and Bell sink.
- Psygnosis, on 11/27/2008, -2/+43I can understand why they'd do this considering it costs more per meg to send a text message then it does to get data from the Hubble http://www.physorg.com/news129793047.html
- Defiant001, on 11/27/2008, -3/+42Dugg for truth, and ***** the crtc
- HonoredMule, on 11/27/2008, -0/+34Technically, it's probably somewhere around $0.0000001.
- ksornberger, on 11/27/2008, -2/+35Mobile pricing in Canada is just ridiculous. It's amazging at the difference in pricing and service between Canada and the US.
I'd love to see another GSM provider up here to give Rogers some competition. They're terrible. - inactive, on 11/27/2008, -3/+35$0.00. The same price it costs any telco to provide Caller ID. Call fowarding. Call waiting.
0.00. - bewareofthecow, on 11/27/2008, -0/+30To put this in perspective: If computer bandwidth cost as much as text messages you would spend 50 MILLION dollars a month on your home internet package (assuming usage of about 50GB). Why they think it costs $0.15 to transfer 150 BYTES is beyond me.
- Ford_Prefect2nd, on 11/27/2008, -4/+34Have it update gmail, then have gmail update your phone.
- Defiant001, on 11/27/2008, -1/+29Because the government is all old people, they see their google "work" and their emails "go" and as far as they are concerned everything is peachy. Its a general ignorance on their part about technology, and we suffer for it.
- theone156, on 11/27/2008, -0/+27I pay close to that with Telus Mobility, and I have a bandwidth cap of 60MB. Canada has an Oligopoly and the government doesn't see the problem.
- kentifer, on 11/27/2008, -0/+19If you send an email to an address like 7801234567@txt.bell.ca the phone will receive the text message.
And emails are cheap. - baudbwoy, on 11/27/2008, -0/+18I pay 110 plus tax for both my phones and I only get 125 txt sent with "unlimited" incoming (where unlimited is the new 2500, yeh I don't get it either). When I go to the state I love using my cingular phone like a phone whore, i let strangers use my phone for fun. I like twitter but i have to turn off alerts, which kills the point. I wish an American company would just move in and save our asses up here. I've purchased K-Y stock because these bastards have me over a table. PLEASE SOME ONE(cingular, verizon, T-mobile...) please come and change the game.
- doiveo, on 11/27/2008, -1/+19This will have an impact but stopping isn't what I want. I just want fair pricing.
- timdorr, on 11/27/2008, -0/+17It's way more than 90% profit. You're sending 160bytes of text. Is there any serious way that's ever going to cost them more than a few cents a month?
- ryanjanssen, on 11/27/2008, -0/+17it really sucks having Rogers the only GSM provider here, gsm always gets the cool phones first :(
- Branchex, on 11/27/2008, -2/+19This is just another step towards text messaging becoming obsolete, with e-mail, IM and phone apps ready to take the mantle.
- jsauter, on 11/27/2008, -0/+17It still costs Twitter money to send you text messages. Sure, there is an ecomony of scale present, but in the long term they are paying A LOT of money to send you status updates. Considering Twitter is already having funding issues and no business plan I can see why they would cut that cost centre in an effort to become profitable.
- doiveo, on 11/27/2008, -1/+16Ouch. That sucks. I've come to rely on my Treo for both being closer yet untethered from my desk.
- cros, on 11/27/2008, -3/+17Part of me is pissed about the telco greed but, on the other hand, SMS should likely go the way of the dinosaur. A push to have internet on all mobile devices and as a standard service (hopefully cheap in Canada one day) would be better overall. SMS so so singular when it comes to its functionality.
- theone156, on 11/27/2008, -0/+14I would agree, but its going to take a long time for SMS to go away. There are more people without email/IM capable phones.
- ryleyleckie, on 11/27/2008, -0/+14it's not just GSM providers in Canada. It's the entire industry.
- chicagog19, on 11/27/2008, -0/+14I definitely feel for you guys up there in Canada. I already feel ripped off on my cell phone service in the states, but you guys in the north get absolutely raped.
- Ma1achi, on 11/27/2008, -0/+14Rogers and Bell need to be torn limb from limb into 50 smaller companies.
Those two bastards have WAY too much power. An accepted Dual monopoly if you will. When will Harper step in and do something? never, he gets free unlimited bandwidth on his iPhone from Rogers. - evilJaze, on 11/27/2008, -0/+14They most assuredly are not...
- ToastPop, on 04/17/2009, -1/+14What on earth are you paying for? That kind of money would get you practically unlimited everything with Fido, Virgin, or Koodo. Even the iPhone plans with Fido start at $60 and you get 2500 texts.
With a little effort, you can make the perfect plan here in Canada. Just jump on limited time offers and stick with the value brands (Fido dropped their system access fee and have nation-wide coverage now by the way) - theonlybradever, on 11/27/2008, -0/+13additionally, in Canada, all that "astronomical start up cash" was subsidized by the federal government.
- alricsca, on 11/27/2008, -0/+12Welcome to the world of deregulation and legal monopolies. We need to recognize the national nature and importance of these system. While it okay for any group to earn money for establishing and maintaining the infrastructure the data needs to be free and the cost regulated to reflect the natural monopoly. Think about electrical service, only one company can serve a home by its nature. If they were allowed unfettered control, what would happen to the price. If we go forward and implement the modern tech for Wi-Fi, every person in a nation could be watching a streaming movie and the bandwidth would handle it. We need change. It is the fact they make tons of money while maintaining 1980 technology and a legal monopoly that aggravates this.
- belfastbiker, on 11/27/2008, -1/+13Actually I hear about bomb alerts in Belfast on twitter quicker than I do on the news.
We don't all lead boring lives I guess? - monasusan1, on 11/27/2008, -0/+12In india SMS is cheaper compared to other nations. You can send SMS at @ .011$ per sms. Google recently started its SMS search. That too charged at normal SMS rate.
- beerwench, on 11/27/2008, -14/+26oh noes.. now you cant tell people that youre taking a ***** or about to eat a ham sandwich.... so useless
- nukeleearr, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11$100 a month and you only get 100 text with no LD? That is a horrible plan... you should call retentions...
- amishjim, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11what do you think the actual cost of a text message is?
- dhughes, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11 The switches, computers, power consumption, labour to maintain the system would cost money but it's all part of the cellular network it shouldn't be an added cost but it isn't maintenance free.
- milkshaker, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11Rogers owns Fido. Rogers owns Toronto.
- kloche, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11So effectively the Canadian public paid for those cell towers with our taxes. And the Canadian telcoms are happy to come back to rape us another time with their ridiculous rates on every little mobile service available
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+11they charge that much because suckers will pay it.
- TPorter72, on 11/27/2008, -0/+10I wonder if anyone in Alberta actually has this number and is on bell?
- madeingermany, on 11/27/2008, -4/+14People should just stop texting - that would bring down prices.
- blacklilyninja, on 11/27/2008, -0/+10he was quietly shushed
- evilJaze, on 11/27/2008, -1/+11Apparently... :D
(psst... it's a BlackBerry) - captainchris, on 11/27/2008, -0/+10the entire communications industry in canada is corrupt
- Speed, on 11/27/2008, -0/+10Actually, the Canadian government invested an astronomical amount of cash to build cell towers.
- ryleyleckie, on 11/27/2008, -0/+9i'm sure the wireless carriers are quite aware of the profits they're making through SMS. i'll also bet that they know that SMS is on it's way out with data taking it's place. until everyone is on data, they're going to milk SMS for all it's worth.
- ravage86, on 11/27/2008, -1/+10Interesting, you'd think since the thing is solar powered that the cost would be $0. If they're not including ground cost, then who are they paying?
- quarkie, on 11/27/2008, -0/+9I find signing 1 or 2 year contracts and complaining about how much you are paying every few months works wonders.
The trick is just that 6 month window until the end of your contract is your chance to get as much out of them as physically possible. Especially if you are with Telus and Bell and mention the magic "iPhone" word.
The industry is based on loyalty and if you stay with a company for longer and threaten to leave you can get very very good offers. For example, my cell phone (From Telus) costs me $20 a month with system access fee and tax (and no I'm not in Manitoba where they have no service, and I am only on a 1 year contract). - Jareth86, on 11/27/2008, -1/+10The conservative party will step in as soon as Rogers and Bel start preforming either abortions or gay weddings.
- DarkStar3333, on 11/27/2008, -0/+9Considering everything is the same (voice is a series of bytes too) there's no reason for the charge.
Having to buy a Data & Voice package is a load of crap because on the network layer, everything is multiplexed as 1 and 0's regardless of source. If they devised a billing system based on bytes consumed then that would be fine with me assuming it was a acceptable rate. -
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