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Just for perspective...think about what you pay now for "long distance" versus the late 70's and early 80's. We used to rack up some horrendous LD bills in our college days....$200 was not out of the.question.
I have not even thought about an LD bill for years. It's just the new business model for phone companies.
Lux Interior wrote:
Texting, Caller ID...
How many other things do the phone cos charge us for that costs them nothing?
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The reason long distance charges used to be so high was because of the phone system monopoly, stifled competition, and unfettered profiteering. The reason they went down was the breaking up of the monopoly by the government.
The reason SMS charges are so high is monopoly and profiteering. If there was a way for a company to break in and compete then the costs would plummet.
Working for free has nothing to do with it bgnr. Nobody is working to earn these dollars.
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We have AT$T $5/200 text message per month shared between S/O and me. Both of us have never gone beyond 50! The majority of time it's her text frenzy friends who send messages. I stick with iChat or Yahoo Msgr.
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Just looked at my usage. I do over a thousand messages a month. I love texting. With the Palm Centro, I can also archive every text. I often have several people at a time texting back and forth.
I have the Sprint "everything" plan but before I only paid $8 dollars a month for unlimited texts. I'd negotiate with AT&T to reduce the price. If they won't budge, then why am I with them?
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It's not true. Someone I work with sends me texts. We're both with ATT. I declined even the basic text plan when I bought my iPhone this August. I get charged .20 each time I receive one of this co-worker's messages. Never anything important either. I've told him about these charges and, asked him not to text me. I still get occasional texts though from him.
I had wondered if I could block all texts. I know Apple doesn't allow me to delete their SMS Text App (or, any other Apple installed App; I've tried, I can't do it). I'll have to stop by an ATT store and see if they can put a text message block on my line. I don't mind getting the rare free text from Apple or ATT but, paying to get someone's BS is another story.
quote="Black Landlord"]
(vikm) wrote:
[quote=Ken Sp.]
FYI
I think texting to and from another AT&T customer is free.
I wasn't aware of that. How sure are you?
Sorry, I think that's not true.
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Lux Interior wrote:
Texting, Caller ID...
How many other things do the phone cos charge us for that costs them nothing?
Touch Tone. In fact, it costs Telcos more for you to not have touch tone as all the newer switching gear (roughly the last 15 years) is touch tone.
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testcase wrote:
It's not true. Someone I work with sends me texts. We're both with ATT. I declined even the basic text plan when I bought my iPhone this August. I get charged .20 each time I receive one of this co-worker's messages. Never anything important either. I've told him about these charges and, asked him not to text me. I still get occasional texts though from him.
I had wondered if I could block all texts. I know Apple doesn't allow me to delete their SMS Text App (or, any other Apple installed App; I've tried, I can't do it). I'll have to stop by an ATT store and see if they can put a text message block on my line. I don't mind getting the rare free text from Apple or ATT but, paying to get someone's BS is another story.
quote="Black Landlord"]
[quote=(vikm)]
[quote=Ken Sp.]
FYI
I think texting to and from another AT&T customer is free.
I wasn't aware of that. How sure are you?
Sorry, I think that's not true.
Same experience here. I've asked several people nicely not to text me frivolously, and they don't seem able to stop. My favorites are the "on my way", "almost there", "just got here" type messages from someone who's on their way to an event I'm not personally attending.
It's not hard to understand how you can have 2000+ messages a month when you consider that string of texts replaces a phone call-- how many times does each party speak in the course of a short conversation? Count one text for each utterance. Not an absolute analogy but you get the picture.
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Black Landlord wrote:
[quote=testcase]
It's not true. Someone I work with sends me texts. We're both with ATT. I declined even the basic text plan when I bought my iPhone this August. I get charged .20 each time I receive one of this co-worker's messages. Never anything important either. I've told him about these charges and, asked him not to text me. I still get occasional texts though from him.
I had wondered if I could block all texts. I know Apple doesn't allow me to delete their SMS Text App (or, any other Apple installed App; I've tried, I can't do it). I'll have to stop by an ATT store and see if they can put a text message block on my line. I don't mind getting the rare free text from Apple or ATT but, paying to get someone's BS is another story.
quote="Black Landlord"]
[quote=(vikm)]
[quote=Ken Sp.]
FYI
I think texting to and from another AT&T customer is free.
I wasn't aware of that. How sure are you?
Sorry, I think that's not true.
Same experience here. I've asked several people nicely not to text me frivolously, and they don't seem able to stop. My favorites are the "on my way", "almost there", "just got here" type messages from someone who's on their way to an event I'm not personally attending.
It's not hard to understand how you can have 2000+ messages a month when you consider that string of texts replaces a phone call-- how many times does each party speak in the course of a short conversation? Count one text for each utterance. Not an absolute analogy but you get the picture.
My three top texts. ::o
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The text thing is a scam and ripoff.
That's simply not true. If you know that, then you're a liar. If you don't, then you really should familiarize yourself with free enterprise.
Carriers get the prices they do because the market will bear those prices. If we boycotted those services an/or carriers, the prices would plummet.
You can't sell what nobody will buy.
For instance, the fact is that ANYBODY who uses a cellphone is complicit in their own gouging because we pay for BOTH outgoing AND incoming calls. If that were proposed for land lines, we'd scream. We'd complain endlessly. We might even contact the companies and our various government representatives.
And we might, heaven forbid, even vote with our dollars.
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you promised her the phone, did you promise you would pay an unlimited amount for the bills as well? Tell her you are willing to spend X dollars a month on service. Anything above that she needs to either pay herself, or to earn it by doing extra chores or whatever.
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