Get ready to pay for incoming text messages Bell and Telus to hit users with levy next month
Sarah Schmidt Tuesday, July 08, 2008
CREDIT: Crack Palinggi, Reuters Canadians now send 45.4 million text messages each and every day.
OTTAWA - Cellphone users are about to be hit with new fees as two of Canada's telecommunications giants plan to bring in a levy on incoming text messages.
Bell Mobility will begin charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message on Aug. 8. Telus Mobility is moving to the same billing practice effective Aug. 24. Until now, their pay-per-use customers who send text messages have been charged a 15-cent fee per message, but it hasn't cost anything to receive them.
The pending new charge has sparked outrage on blogs, with customers saying they can't control who sends them messages, especially when spammers obtain their cell number or retailers send them unsolicited messages.
"This charge is unbelievable. If someone sends me "spam" on my Bell phone, I have to pay for it? I made the mistake of giving my cellphone number to a car rental agency and now I get spam text messages," a Bell customer ranted on a Canadian technology blog.
"I actually work for Bell and I think this incoming text messages being charged is bogus!" posted another.
Text messaging has ballooned in popularity since inter-carrier service came to Canada in 2002.
In its first year, there were 369,000 text messages sent every day, or 11 million annually. Today, Canadians send 45.4 million per day, according to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. And cellphone subscribers sent 4.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, close to the annual total of 4.3 billion sent in 2006 and on track to surpass the 10.1 billion sent last year.
Association spokesman Marc Choma said the phenomenon has moved beyond the teenage crowd - known as the "early adopters" - to parents, who use it as a "family management tool."
Telus Mobility spokesperson AJ Gratton cites this rapid growth as the reason for the new charge.
"The growth in text messages has been nothing short of phenomenal," Gratton said. "This volume places tremendous demands on our network and we can't afford to provide this service for free anymore."
Characterizing the annual growth in text traffic on Bell's wireless network as "massive," company spokesman Jason Laszlo said the result has been greater capacity, licensing and support costs.
He said all but one of Bell's North American competitors charge for both incoming and outcoming text messages.
Bell and Telus customers can avoid the charge by switching to Rogers, which says it has no plans to institute a fee to receive a text message. But Bell and Telus both charge penalties if customers break their contracts, at $20 for every month remaining on a broken contract up to $400.
"We just don't charge for it, and have no plans to. Now it's a unique differentiator for Rogers," company spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton said of the move to charge for incoming messages.
Howard Chui, based in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, runs an online forum about the mobile phone industry in Canada. He isn't optimistic that consumers are going to win this fight. And he's not sure how long Rogers will hold out.
"I think overall customers will just have to take it," he said, characterizing the three Canadian carriers as an "oligopoly."
Rogers is dealing with its own customer backlash over its rate plans for the Apple iPhone, on store shelves on Friday. The company, which has an exclusive iPhone carrier arrangement with Apple Inc. in Canada, is offering monthly plans ranging from $60 to $155.
The proposed fee schedule has unleashed an online campaign against Rogers, under the tagline "Screwing Canadian iPhone customers since '08."
Canadians already pay more than Europeans and Americans for cellphone services. Industry Minister Jim Prentice acknowledged this fact in the spring when he opened Canada's wireless spectrum auction.
Industry Canada set aside 40 megahertz, out of a total 105, for smaller companies to compete against the established telecommunications giants. Prentice said "the intent behind the auction is lower prices, more choice for consumers.'"
hands up the # of poster in here who can live WITHOUT text messaging! the only person who texts me is my cell company reminding me every coupla months how happy they are that I'm a customer and here's some virtual cash to upgrade to a new phone....
my problem with text messaging is seeing people driving and texting at the same time. and we wonder why ICBC rates continue to go thru the roof....
I text like crazy, so this will be interesting. I'm going to assume that if you have a monthly texting package, then this won't affect you. It's just for people who pay-per-text, right.........??
Well, this is a total ripoff as usual, texts don't cost a cent to send let alone 15 or whatever. This is pure BS from the phone companies. You WILL pay for incoming spam messages as well!
Geeze, it takes me 30 mins to spell out a text message on a phone keyboard. Much easier for me to send it from a website, or to actually call the person and SPEAK with them. I hate texting.
this will kill my bill!!! it is the best way to have the teenagers contact home - which they would never think of calling but a text with out hearing they have ticked us off is better. plus with a new blackberry - every email also comes as a text and a bunch of other garbage.
I text like crazy, so this will be interesting. I'm going to assume that if you have a monthly texting package, then this won't affect you. It's just for people who pay-per-text, right.........??
I think you'll find that the small print is for OUT going messages...you'll get an extra charge for IN coming messages...
Paying for incoming messages is like paying each time you pick up the phone at home. It's just another cash grab!
There is no extra cost if you subscibe to thier unlimited txting plans - which they are pushing on customers who call with concerns about the new charges.
Its all a ploy to sell unlimited txting packages. and they are getting national media coverage for it. free advertising. pretty much genius
Perfect. That works out awesome for me, and the unlimited texting package is pretty cheap. That said, all *private* cell companies are pirates. I miss my MTS!!
I have a new phone, cost a bunch but I use very few of the options. I open it, I say hello. I close it and the calls over. I never text. There must be a way to stop incoming text....there is a way right?
OTTAWA - Industry Minister Jim Prentice on Wednesday publicly demanded an explanation from two of the country's telecommunications giants to clarify their 'ill-thought' decision to start charging their cellphone customers for incoming text messages.
Chastising them for raising "serious concerns, particularly with regard to charges for unsolicited, unwanted, spam text messages," Prentice has summoned top executives to Ottawa to explain themselves before Bell Mobility starts charging 15 cents per incoming text message on August 8.
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