New Charges for Incoming Text Messages

Saturday, July 12, 2008 06:01 AM

by Trish Clark

Telus and Bell announced they were going to start charging customers for incoming text messages. The customer backlash was immediate.

Telus already charges for outgoing messages at 15 cents. Under this new plan the person who receives the message will also get hit with the same 15 cent charge or 30 cents a message.

An employee from Telus would not answer when asked if that amounted to double billing, but the government of Canada did answer. Jim Prentice, Industry Minister said the new plan would not apply to those already on text plans “It was an ill thought out decision”.

The NDP launched an online petition to protest the new plan almost immediately and already totals over 5000 signatures.

The new charge is to take affect August 8, 2008 for Bell and August 24^th for Telus. While Prentice hopes to meet with both companies before that, there is no indication he will be changing his mind.

Both companies stated that they have extensive spam filters in place to prevent spam text but if a customer gets a spam text to call them and they will have it removed from their bill. Realistically, who is going to do that?

Michael Janigan, Public Interest Advocacy Centre called it a "public relations debacle for Bell and Telus." "If (Prentice) can jawbone these guys into seeing the light of day, it would be appreciated,"

Janigan says Bell recognizes this is common charge already in the United States and that Bell can no longer afford not to implement this policy.

There are no plans right now for Rogers to change their text plans but in light of the bad press they are getting with the iPhone, that may not happen.

Trish Clark is the owner of North Central Communications. You can reach her via e-mail: Trish@northcentralcommunications.ca or visit their website http://northcentralcommunications.ca

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008 06:01 AM in Technology by Submitted Article

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: Harbinger on July 12 2008 8:41 AM

.015 is one and a half cents. Darn metric money!!. Is that like one aircraft. Two aircrafts? Jest wunderin'.

Posted by: ammonra on July 12 2008 9:07 AM

Now they should go after Telus for that ripoff where they take all the money in the customer's pay as you go account if they miss putting some money in each month regardless of how much is in there at the time. I think that is corporate theft and a practice that shows how "profitmongering" still takes place by large, untouchable, corporations.

Posted by: zoopdingle on July 12 2008 9:38 AM

quote:

"Telus already charges for outgoing messages at .015 cents. Under this new plan the person who receives the message will also get hit with the same .015 charge or .30 cents a message."

That's damn cheap. If I only receive one message will they round that .3 cents up to a full penny?

Posted by: billposer on July 12 2008 10:47 AM

Since when can Telus unilaterally amend a contract?

Posted by: EdH on July 12 2008 11:14 AM

Twice 0.015 cents is three hundredths of a cent, not three tenths.

It is around one thousand times cheaper in PG to text than anywhere else I know if those figures are correct.

Posted by: ShannanigansB on July 12 2008 11:49 AM

its 15 cents to send a message and 15 cents to recieve a message, I dont know what some of you are talking about point this and point that....I guess the article isn't really written properly, well don't blame them they majored in arts, not math.

Anyhoo...so if I have unlimited texting on my plan does that mean unlimited incoming AND outgoing?

Posted by: lostfaith on July 12 2008 2:26 PM

Thank goodness I have a company cell.
I can see it now, Telus and Bell using text messaging spammers to increase their bottom line.

Posted by: sunshine on July 12 2008 6:46 PM

From what I have heard if you have a text messaging plan, such as mine at $5/month for unlimited texting, you will not have to pay the extra fees for incoming messages. However I am not sure about this so I am going to phone bell and ask them about this just to be sure.

Posted by: diplomat on July 12 2008 6:48 PM

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/canada_net_censorship.html

If the story on the above website is true we are in for some real surprises as far as the Internet goes.

Posted by: DPJ on July 12 2008 10:58 PM

Bloody expensive cell phone plans. They must be in the same league as the gas companies.

Posted by: metalman on July 14 2008 7:10 AM

They used to call that sort of thing "a license to print money" You could opt out, no one is forced to own a cell phone. Of course your life would not be as conveniant. Don't get me wrong, I am not on the side of the telecoms, far from it.
metalman.

Posted by: rambleon on July 14 2008 7:27 AM

If you have time, check out this blog an American man wrote about his experiences with Verizon and their inability to distinguish dollars from cents!

It's pretty funny, and frustrating if you put yourself in his shoes:

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html