AT&T Kills $10 Texting Plan, Pushes $20 Plan 348
Hugh Pickens writes "AT&T is scrapping its 1,000-texts-for-ten-bucks plan and replacing it with a plan that offers unlimited texts for $20. Users who don't want the unlimited plan can opt to pay 20 cents per text. Current AT&T subscribers are grandfathered in, so you can stick with whatever plan you selected when you signed your contract. 'The vast majority of our messaging customers prefer unlimited plans and with text messaging growth stronger than ever, that number continues to climb among new customers,' says AT&T. The news has not been received warmly in the tech blogosphere. 'AT&T calls this "streamlining." We call it what it is: an outrageous, gigantic scam,' writes Sam Biddle in Gizmodo. 'AT&T's taken away new customers' option to spend less, whereas carriers like Verizon still offer tiered texting plans for varying budgets.'"
Perfectly reasonable... (Score:0, Funny)
I'm sure 20 cents a text is a great value. It certainly costs a lot to support that much infrastructure to send a few bytes of data. I hope they are able to merge with T-mobile, I'm sure it will be great for consumers.
Stop with the FUD (Score:5, Funny)
Jeez ... I'm tired of reading comments from people who have no clue how the system actually works. If you did, you'd realize how AT&T actually loses money per text.
Here's the breakdown ...
You send a text message which transmits the data in digital format (ones and zeros, to the layman). The message is received in a central building where the message is repeated by flashing lightbulbs. One pulse for zero. Two pulses for one. Workers transcribe the texts then pass them off to their editorial department who double checks the transcription. Then it's passed to another department (whom I'm not at liberty say who or what it does*cough*NSA*cough) before it is passed to the encoding department where workers hand encode the messages into paper rolls that are fed into the central dispatch unit to where it is communicated to your phone.
And you complain that it costs twenty bucks a month? .
Re:The new Swoopoo Texting plan (Score:4, Funny)
I have another texting plan called "party line". This is texting group that is open to everyone to join. each text you post costs 1$. the person that posts the very last text (15 second closeout window) get $1000 cash!