Text Message Mark-up is an Estimated 4,900 per cent - The Intrepid

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Text Message Mark-up is an Estimated 4,900 per cent

Cell Phone Text Message

On Tuesday this week, Srinivasan Keshav, a Canadian Research Chair at the University of Waterloo, informed the U.S. Senate, during a hearing on text message rates, that a single message probably costs less than 0.3 cents—a mark-up of 4,900 per cent. Text messages represent a small fraction of the total traffic over cell phone towers, so congestion isn’t what’s driving prices. Most of the cost comes from calculating bills and building and maintaining cell phone towers, but even these expenditures are relatively minor. Ultimately, North Americans are forced to endure steep rates, because the reigning telecommunications monopolies have determined that that's what the market can bear. "I'm not here to judge whether the market is competitive or fair, I'm just telling you this is the price and this is the cost," said Keshav. "Let people who are experiencing these plans decide whether it's correct or not."

Photo by ℓisaa.