Text messaging on ATT costs over $1,000 per megabyte
As you know, AT&T is the exclusive carrier for Apple’s iPhone, which means they can pretty much jack up the prices of service to whatever they damn well please. Right now, AT&T is charging 20 cents per text message you send or receive. Let’s do a little bit of math.
One text message can’t exceed 160 bytes of data since you can only send up to 160 characters per text message. A little math will show that 1 megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes, or $1,310.72 dollars.
That math assumes you max out each text message you send. AT&T will charge you twenty cents whether you use all 160 characters, or simply write ‘K’ to your friend. Multiply $1,310.72 by 160 if you really want to freak out. That works out to $209,715 per megabyte.
Other fun: at $5 for 200 text messages you’re paying 2.5 cents per text message. At $15 for 1,500 text messages you’re paying 1 cent per text. All that makes $20 for unlimited texts’when are you ever going to send more than 1,500 text messages in a month seem like a deal, but clearly it’s not.
Related posts:
- The real cost of sending SMS messages
- How Some Families Control Text Messaging Costs
- Woman falls onto subway track while text messaging
