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The State of the Union |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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I imagine (and I have no proof to back this up) about 60 - 70% of American users (or more) are post-paid customers (NOT pay as you go). If anyone knows the real figures, please post them.
Caller-pays is not standard practice here. If there are long-distance charges involved the caller pays those, but otherwise minutes are minutes. It doesn't matter who is calling who, you are spending precious minutes every time you are on the phone.
But the post-paid plans are so affordable, you can get a shit load of minutes pretty easily. I pay 40.00 USD for 1,000 "anytime" minutes, unlimited nights (9pm - 6:59am) and weekends, and no long distance or roaming. Plus 5.00 for unlimited data and 7.00 for unlimited mobile-to-mobile (m2m; inside the T-Mobile network - most people I call are in this category, so it is worth it for me to pay for this feature). And because I have the m2m minutes, I rarely ever come close to my 1,000 minutes.
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richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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It appears that SMS services are becoming more wisespread... I came across this site this morning: http://sms.google.com
We can now use this service to find restaurants, phone numbers and other information via SMS.
Also, I was watching television last night and realized that I was wrong about SMS services such as contests and other television based SMS programs being locked to a provider. I was under that impression because they use these contests as a way to advertise a specific provider... The commercials say something to the effect of 'Send a text message to 12345 from your Cigular or other mobile handset'. I never notices they said "or other". My mistake.
But it appears SMS is catching on more and more. I wish we could pay for things with our mobiles, but that is far off as I see it.
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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I think the current figures are just over two billion texts a month in the UK; texting has really caught on here.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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That's a lot of text messages. I don't think we're anywhere near that here.
For sale: Near-mint M600i (white), PM me if interested |
moodswinger
Joined: Dec 10, 2001
Posts: 78
From: New York, USA
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Not only you have to pay for the incoming calls, but you also have to pay for the incoming SMS. I guess that was another reason hindering the acceptance of texting here in the US. |
Residentevil
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Raccoon City, USA
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at scotsboyuk: I sms, but not that much really. Maybe 20 sms a month.
at ricky: Do you sms much?
Tough times don't last, tough people do!
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RichLok
Joined: Jun 06, 2002
Posts: 331
From: Los Angeles, CA
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My last bill showed 720 SMS... I have a package of 1500 SMS / 250 MMS and unlimited GPRS for $20 |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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@moodswinger
I didn't realise one had to pay to receive a text in the States!
@Residentevil
I would consider myself an average texter, I don't think I text an awful lot, perhaps one hundred a month or so.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
plasmadog
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Beantown, India
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its pretty strange that mobile operators charge for incoming sms as well!!
we had to pay for incoming calls here until the TRAI (regulator) put a stop to it once people started complaining of really high incoming call charges. maybe the FCC isn't paying enough attention to the needs of the users.outgoing sms are charged about 1 cent here. mms is free for a flat rate of about $2.50 a month.
well, charging for incoming sms only helps the mobile operators! are there consumer rights groups lobbying the government about it? maybe its because the telecom lobby is really powerful in the states?
again, i think the mobile operators are adopting a short term approach to things i.e they'd rather make less money charging users for incoming calls/sms rather than making them free and much more people will start using them in the future. i wonder what the official explanationg given by at&t/cingular/t-mobile about this issue.
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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How much does it cost to receive a text in the U.S.?
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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The FCC is a f*cking joke.
They're more concerned with keeping kids safe from bad language and nude women than something that would actually benefit Americans.
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[ This Message was edited by: richy240 on 2004-10-20 14:03 ] |
nkivett
Joined: Oct 21, 2004
Posts: 9
From: CA, USA
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You have to pay extra to have unlimited text messages on a plan. Otherewise you usually have like 20 free, then its like 5 cents per message sent and received. |
scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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@nkivett
That's quite cheap to send a text.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
plasmadog
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Beantown, India
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[quote]
On 2004-10-20 15:01:37, richy240 wrote:
The FCC is a f*cking joke.
They're more concerned with keeping kids safe from bad language and nude women than something that would actually benefit Americans.
yeah i remember the time when there was a lot of furore in the white house about profanity and bad language in the media... and the next day dick cheney goes on national tv and utters the f word by mistake!!! strange country!
coming back to the point... do a lot of the high flying/business class people use high end phones like the p910/ipaq or do they use a combination of a laptop/simple mobile phone to keep connected while travelling?
and... wasn't the voting on american idol done using text messages on at&t?? (that's what i observed on tv here).
tia. |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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Most of the high-end phone/pda combinations are either Pocket PC or Palm based. Symbian, although the most popular smartphone OS, doesn't have such a huge market share here. Or so it seems.
The company I work for uses Blackberrys, except for the VP who uses a Palm Tungsten from AT&T. I had to configure a VPN client for it so he could get to his email securely, and it ended up working rather well. Aside from the multiple taps required to log on and check email, it is just as good as a Blackberry as far as I am concerned. But it doesn't support push email like the Blackberry.
I would rather have a smartphone than a Blackberry any day though.
For sale: Near-mint M600i (white), PM me if interested |
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Posted: 2004-10-11 21:26
