Why are SMS messages so expensive?

Allero@lemmy.today to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 175 points –

Is there any reason, beyond corporate greed, for SMS messages to cost so much?

If I get it right, an SMS message is just a short string of data, no different from a message we send in a messenger. If so, then what makes them so expensive? If we'd take Internet plans and consider how much data an SMS takes, we should pay tiny fraction of a cent for each message; why doesn't that happen?

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Are they? I have plans in both the UK and France, and I think they're both unlimited sms. Not expensive plans, I think the UK one is £7 for unlimited sms, unlimited calls and 20gb of data. French one was 13€ for unlimited sms/calls, and 130gb data on 5g.

7 euros for 20gb of data? I'm paying close to $30 a month for 1 gig and if I cross that the bill shoots up to $40 Fucking American Capitalism.