You might be paying $1,000 per MB for SMS

Many mobile prepaid service plans in the US still require a per SMS charge. Most charge for sending and receiving and include a premium charge for sending to other countries. Have you ever sat down to figure out how much you’re really paying for this frictionless and convenient mode of communication?

The Plans

$.15 send & $.15 receive – domestic
$.20 send & $.15 receive – international
$4.99 200 message bundle
$19.99 unlimited messages

$.10 send & $.10 receive domestic to other Verizon phone
$.15 send & $.15 receive domestic to other carrier
$.25 send & $.10 receive international
no bundles

$.10 send & $0 receive
$5.00 unlimited messages

$.05 send & $.05 receive
$4.99 200 message bundle
$1.99 50 message bundle

A Bit of Math

SMS max message size is 160 characters. One character equals one byte. There are 1024 x 1024 or 1,048,576 bytes in 1MB.

So there are 1,048,576 / 160 or 6553.6 SMS messages in 1MB of data.

NOTE: this assumes you use all the characters available in every message which none of us do. Some examples of really short messages show up on my phone frequently like “Ready?” “You home?” “Let’s go.” For illustration purposes and easier math, I’m assuming all 160 characters per message are used.

Calculating message traffic per MB these prepaid subscribers are paying the following rates.

Fun Facts

$983.04 per 1MB of message data – domestic
$1310.72 per 1MB of message data – international
$163.84 per 1MB of message data – 200 message bundle

Note the unlimited amount depends on how many are sent, but for illustration lets’s say you sent and received 1000 SMS. You’re per MB charge is $131.07.

$655.36 per 1MB of message data – domestic to other Verizon phone
$983.04 per 1MB of message data – domestic to other carrier
$1638.40 per 1MB of message data – international
no bundles

$655.36 per 1MB of message data
$32.77 per 1MB of message data (assuming 1000 messages per month)

$327.68 per 1MB of message data
$163.84 per 1MB of message data – 200 message bundle
$260.83 per 1MB of message data – 50 message bundle

No wonder the Internet is jealous of mobile data! Oh! and Happy 15th to SMS.

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