On 10/12/2010 11:05 PM, Peter Beckman wrote: > Also note that AT&T and Verizon _OWN_ the network. SMS is a function, a > side benefit, of the existing voice network. Because it costs them > nothing extra to maintain SMS capability, $5/month for unlimited SMS > equals $5 of net revenue.
Very literally true. They cannot even make the argument that there is a marginal bandwidth cost because SMSs are padded into existing frames in control channels -- frames that get sent anyway. Hence the otherwise curious 160 character limitation. It's the high-gross margin item of the century. A lot of smartphones have IP-based text messaging apps these days; at least, the iPhone app store certainly has innumerable ones on offer. The problem is that the handset makers actively collude with the carriers to sabotage the interface mechanics that would make these work well, like good push notifications or fast app load times to pull up a message. No surprise there. -- Alex Balashov - Principal Evariste Systems LLC 1170 Peachtree Street 12th Floor, Suite 1200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Tel: +1-678-954-0670 Fax: +1-404-961-1892 Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/ -- _____________________________________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
