Legal Research

Money For Nothing

Last month my son — Mr. Monosyllabic — set the family record for text messages: 5,001.  If I hadn’t already surrendered to inevitability back in the spring and agreed to shell out $30 a month for unlimited texting, he would have dinged me for $1,000.  Why do I have to spend so much so that my family can zap dumb little text messages around the airwaves?  The NY Times sheds some light here:

(a) It costs the carriers nothing to send the messages.  They’re sent using the control channel — the connection between phone and tower that has to be established anyway.

(b) They want to lock you in with an unlimited texting plan.  “Customers with unlimited plans, like diners bringing a healthy appetite to an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, might think they’re getting the best out of the arrangement.  But the carriers, unlike the cafeteria owners, can provide unlimited quantities of ‘food’ at virtually no cost to themselves.”

I’ll add one more:

(c) Teenagers are the carriers’ best friends.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on December 30, 2008 (boomark / email).