DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Text messages are an even bigger rip-off than they seem

**DialOne** · 02-01-2009, 02:37 PM

Apparently text messages cost virtually nothing for carriers as they piggy back on the control channel for the phones anyway.

http://gizmodo.com/5119496/nyt-text-...an-you-thought
Text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.

That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted. I really hope this all drives down the ridiculous prices carriers put on texting packages.

02-01-2009, 02:37 PM	#1
DialOne Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 454 Senior Member	Text messages are an even bigger rip-off than they seem Apparently text messages cost virtually nothing for carriers as they piggy back on the control channel for the phones anyway. http://gizmodo.com/5119496/nyt-text-...an-you-thought Text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network. That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted. I really hope this all drives down the ridiculous prices carriers put on texting packages.
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