DISQUS

Meg · 9 months ago

More evidence that the Canadian telecom industry is entirely anti-customer.

Jason Tryfon · 9 months ago

It will go over fine. Here in Canada we are used to outrageous mobility plans, so really nothing will be out of the ordinary.

Mark · 9 months ago

I think it's still retarded (and I'm being nice), that I have to pay for freakin' INCOMING messages. As if I can help it someone sends me a message!

Canadian providers should learn from European ones, where you only pay for what you actually use, and if you have minutes left on your plan, they get transferred to the next months.

Anyhoo, I'll make sure my device updates on twitter are switched off..

Megan · 9 months ago

I was excited when I received my first SMS after the service was turned back on.
How disappointing to know that it comes with an additional fee per SMS. I don't want have to pay more. I had to turn off all my SMS updates today.

Mike · 9 months ago

So, does anyone know what, if anything, ROGERS is charging in Canada for incoming and outgoing Tweets? I've been sending outgoing SMS Tweets but can't receive them because ROGERS does not support incoming.

I just got my new Blackberry and data plan two weeks ago so I've not received a bill yet. I hope I'm not in for a rude awakening.

Raize · 9 months ago

Perfect example of why Bell is losing market share to Rogers. A partnership with Twitter could have been such a positive thing for Bell to bring in new customers and keep existing ones happy, but they've squandered the opportunity in favor of petty greed. Bell is still stuck in the old ways of doing business unfortunately.

dereksilva · 9 months ago

Mike, Rogers doesn't charge anyone for incoming text messages for most of their plans. I pay $11 a month for an add-on plan that includes 125 sent text messages, voicemail, call display, etc. Not bad considering what other carriers charge for the same things, especially separately.

With your data plan, you could likely not see any additional charges - just check how many outgoing text messages you have included with the plan.

HC · 9 months ago

That's $143,804 per GB of wireless data Bell is charging!

Rajio · 9 months ago

I am laughing and crying and shaking my fist, all at once.

Matt Hoult · 9 months ago

This is complete BS! You can't charge that! Ridiculous. This has to be illegal surely!

Mike · 9 months ago

Thanks Derek!

I have unlimited txt/voice/picture messaging and 500MB data plan for browsing, e-mail and IM.

The Rogers rep I dealt with said 500MB was roughly equivalent to 20,000 IMs per day or 200 web pages per day or 1.5 hours of GPS use per day for a month.

Sound accurate?

Jay M. · 9 months ago

My feeling is that this may become less of an issue.
True, MANY people have the access to SMS services, a common method for twitter for many users .
But there is a definite move towards data services on modern smartphones. Looking at how many iTunes apps there are for Twitter is an indication of such a shift.
True, this does suck (I do still miss my SMS updates), yet mobile computing on the rise and will eventually create many solutions.

Liam · 9 months ago

WOW,

Someone give me a name and contact for Bell - I'm utterly tired of this shit.
Not did I start receiving updates again, but now I will be charged for them and
no one has informed me I'd be charged - luckily I turned off the updates because
they are just annoying for the most part but seriously so sort of notification to
the users of both services should have been done - or if there was, I never got
the message...

eff Bell

Mark · 9 months ago

Once again, big business is either:
a) in the dark about how a new generation communicates
b) using their old model of charge for everything instead of customer for life
c) protected by being a monopoly (or close after squeezing out all the small companies

Weak.

Infonote · 9 months ago

Hi,

I am an internet user from Malta (Europe). I can receive sms for free using
Twe2 http://www.twe2.com

It is available in all of Europe. I think it will work in Canada.

Nick · 9 months ago

Shows you how out of touch and how closed off the telecom market is in Canada, they can just gouge us and we really have no choice since whatever 1 telecom does the other 2 follow suit, there is no competition in Canada for the cell phone market.

Sebastien Provencher · 9 months ago

Interestingly, IAB Canada came out with their report yesterday regarding the mobile advertising market in Canada. It shows that US mobile ad revenues (including SMS revenues) were 30 times higher in the US than in Canada. I think this clearly shows the wireless ecosystem is not as vibrant as in the US. My post about it.

Aaron · 9 months ago

Put Fring on your phone and you won't have to pay these exorbitant prices.

Bloggeries · 9 months ago

Uber lame!! I quit using it because that's juts too much considering most DM is spam anyways.

scott · 9 months ago

question if you can text to a short code with twitter , why cant you email (from your mobile ) to an email address email@twitter.com , the inbound alias would be your phone number@carrier right or ?

JoeB · 9 months ago

"Essentially we pay for something that the carriers can bring to us free of charge"

Free of charge? How ignorant are you? Okay, I could go on forever here, but let me give an example. I create software for a living. One could argue that once a piece of software is created and one copy is sold that every other copy should be provided for free "because we can now bring it to you free of charge".

Just because a service provider has made a smart move and is able to send text messages over protocol usually used for control messages doesn't mean they should pass the savings on to you. Business are in business to make money, period. If you're going to write about business and technology, you may want to get a freaking clue first.

Mike · 9 months ago

JoeB = Joe BELL

Jennifer Van Grove · 9 months ago

Joe, I invite you to reread the post again. I certainly don't ever say that carriers should provide SMS service free of charge just because it's a low cost service for them. I do, however, think it's ridiculous for one carrier to not honor existing SMS plans and charge additional fees to Twitter users who send and receive messages. I would agree that Bell Mobility is far more ignorant than myself, though I'm sure you'd disagree.

Brian Jones · 9 months ago

My only hope is that they can at least get rid of the annoying yellow box that warns Canadian users that SMS is not available in Canada.

Brain.

Jonathan · 9 months ago

As long as the telcos see SMS as a cash cow, they'll milk it dry, so good luck with persuading them not to gouge you. The money they make on SMS sometimes exceeds voice revenue in some territories. No other revenue stream comes close for them despite billions being poured into things like video and location-based services that nobody uses.

Jonathan · 9 months ago

@JoeB

Of course they shouldn't be made to give something away just because it's free for them to produce, but the flip side of this is that smart businesses know not to use this an excuse not to innovate. Those looking to the long term devise ways they can leverage the zero cost to them by ensuring revenue from other sources - after all, if a produce is free to produce, then it also has near zero risk for experimentation. That mentality seems to be absent both from Bell and from your own attitude. If you write software simply to sell it like apples or cars - you're going nowhere pretty fast.

Joe Stevenson · 9 months ago

Although perhaps justified, this is nothing more than a rant. It's an additional service that takes money to implement and launch and companies need to recoup costs and drive revenue...it's called business and capitalism...you have heard of the stock market right? If you don't want to pay, then don't. It's merely a additional product offering, you don't have to download ring tunes or games either at a cost. Don't be mad at a company for offering choices that aren't mandated.

You are mad at telcos and say there is poor coverage and service, yet coverage is actually very good considering the only 33M people Canada and 2nd largest land mass to cover. People want something for nothing...and cry about prices all the time. I don't work for a telco, but I get sick of the crying...time to go to business school and understand why this is done. Or do more research and find other options for us...now that would be a good article.

jm · 9 months ago

T-Mobile charges $0.20 per SMS (shortcode) to Twitter when you have a "Flexpay" account. Totally infuriating.

Thank goodness for services like ping.fm (like Twe2 but for the US).

jm · 9 months ago

T-Mobile charges $0.20 per SMS (shortcode) to Twitter when you have a "Flexpay" account. Totally infuriating.

Thank goodness for services like ping.fm (like Twe2 but for the US).

jm · 9 months ago

T-Mobile charges $0.20 per SMS to Twitter (shortcode, for Flexpay accounts) -- absolutely infuriating.

Thank goodness for services like ping.fm and Twe2.

Twitter Adder · 9 months ago

Ca mobile plans are too high.. We need more competition..