[Merged] Telus and Bell to start Charging for Incomming SMS.

[chuckp]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...-4787345c.html
Also
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=638556


Telecom giants expand billing
Fee tacked on to incoming text messages

Cellphone users are about to be hit with new fees as two of Canada's telecommunications giants plan to bring in a charge on incoming text messages.

Bell Mobility will begin charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message on Aug. 8. Telus Mobility is moving to the same billing practice effective Aug. 24. Until now, their pay-per-use customers who send text messages have been charged a 15-cent fee per message, but it hasn't cost anything to receive them.

The news has sparked outrage, with customers saying they can't control who sends them messages, especially when spammers obtain their cell number or retailers send them unsolicited messages.

"That's ridiculous, I am not impressed." said Morgan Kostiew, 16, as she watched the Northern League's All-Stars skills competition at CanWest Park Monday night.

"I'm really not okay with that. I've had so much trouble with Telus already. They already make a lot of money off their plans. I think it's ridiculous to charge for incoming text messages when it's not even your choice."

MTS spokesman Greg Burch said the company does not charge for incoming text messages, only outgoing messages.

"We only charge for a message that you originate," he said. "We have no current plans to start charging for incoming text messages."

Text messaging has ballooned in popularity since inter-carrier service came to Canada in 2002.

Telus Mobility spokesperson AJ Gratton cites this rapid growth as the reason for the new charge.

"The growth in text messages has been nothing short of phenomenal," Gratton said. "This volume places tremendous demands on our network and we can't afford to provide this service for free anymore."

Gratton would not say how many Manitobans subscribe to Telus Mobility services.

Characterizing the annual growth in text traffic on Bell's wireless network as "massive," company spokesman Jason Laszlo said the result has been greater capacity, licensing and support costs.

Rogers says it has no plans to institute a fee to receive a text message. But Bell and Telus both charge penalties if customers break their contracts, at $20 for every month remaining on a broken contract up to $400.

"We just don't charge for it, and have no plans to. Now it's a unique differentiator for Rogers," company spokeswoman Elizabeth Hamilton said of the move to charge for incoming messages.

Howard Chui, based in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, runs an online forum about the mobile phone industry in Canada. He isn't optimistic that consumers are going to win this fight. And he's not sure how long Rogers will hold out.

"I think overall customers will just have to take it," he said, characterizing the three Canadian carriers as an "oligopoly."

Rogers is dealing with its own customer backlash over its rate plans for the Apple iPhone, on store shelves on Friday. The company, which has an exclusive iPhone carrier arrangement with Apple Inc. in Canada, is offering monthly plans ranging from $60 to $155.

The proposed fee schedule has unleashed an online campaign against Rogers, under the tagline "Screwing Canadian iPhone customers since '08."

Canadians already pay more than Europeans and Americans for cellphone services. Industry Minister Jim Prentice acknowledged this fact in the spring when he opened Canada's wireless spectrum auction.

-- Canwest News Service, with files from Paul Gackle

[ChromeSushi]

Secret meeting between Telus and Bell

Telus: People are really pissed off at Rogers over this iPhone fiasco. How can we capitalize on it?

Bell: I know! Let's charge for incoming SMS!

[danman227460]

MONEY MONEY MONEY.

Since SMS is SO popular, it was kinda coming that they would start charging you for SMS you don't want. Watch Bell and Telus start spamming you with ads and what not and charge you for it.

I wonder how long before Rogers will hold out and would this effect people with SMS plans.

[CrazyJo82]

Rogers wont hold out for long... the question is more when will rogers begin to charge for incoming SMS.

I dont think this has anything to do with Rogers getting iPhone... Telus and Bell are just losing money big time. That's the reason why Bell has unlimited data plans and Rogers doesn't.

[mydssbin]

$0.15 for every received text message.
This is unethical and immoral!!!!
I think we should screw off them by canceling our service and move to Rogers.

[ullyeus]

I just plan to set up some auto-texter's to text to a couple of dozen people constantly, run up a few thousands dollars in bills and see how quickly bell/telus changes this.

[molala]

do you mind to edit your title pls? i got a little confused when i first read it...

i don't know about rogers...but with fido..you need to subscribe a valupack of $20 (include call display, voice messages, and 2500 messages including portal)...i found that unethical and immoral....

[ullyeus]

[QUOTE=molala;7070114]A woman didn't come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best
friends. None of them knew anything about it.

A man didn't come home one night. The next morning hetold his wife that he had slept over at a friend's
house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was still there.QUOTE]

buwahywhawhahw

[Tijuana]

this is already posted so it wil either get merged or closed, but anyways, they might do it so you need to open it, and then you get charged. So maybe like they see a new message is available and if they open it then they will get charged. Itll prob show the number to, cause ya, I might do the same thing as ullyeus

[chickenbones]

do you mind to edit your title pls? i got a little confused when i first read it...

i don't know about rogers...but with fido..you need to subscribe a valupack of $20 (include call display, voice messages, and 2500 messages including portal)...i found that unethical and immoral....

HOw is that unethical? Fido doesn't charge for text messages received.

[molala]

[QUOTE=ullyeus;7070118]

A woman didn't come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best
friends. None of them knew anything about it.

A man didn't come home one night. The next morning hetold his wife that he had slept over at a friend's
house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was still there.QUOTE]

buwahywhawhahw

[molala]

HOw is that unethical? Fido doesn't charge for text messages received.

they do...if it's received through msn or yahoo...you need to subscribe the value pack to activate the portal

[SwiZz]

Yeah i've been with telus for a while now, and this always annoyed me. Especially since rogers is free to receive.

With telus if you have those add-on's like I have a 250 "free" text messages. If someone sends me a text message through the website, it would eat up 1 of the 250. Anything beyond the 250, I'd get charged $0.15

But I beleive receving a text message from another person's PHONE, and not from the net, is free. Correct me if I'm wrong though. I thought ti was only if its through the web, it charges you $0.15.

[GUAARON]

i know in the states, this would stand as grounds to cancel a contract without paying the ETF based on material change... does it work the same in canada?

[zalapski]

Source.

Excellent, we get to deal with customer care to remove incoming text messages. Sounds easy enough but will probably be a major PITA. Sure we can change numbers but how many people would be willing to lose their current phone number?

“This volume places tremendous demands on our network and we can't afford to provide this service for free any more,” Anne-Julie Gratton (Telus spokeswoman) wrote.

...

“We are simply aligning ourselves with market realities,” Bell spokesman Jason Laszlo wrote. Mr. Laszlo said that if a Bell customer receives any spam messages, he or she can contact customer care to have their account credited.

“If a client is experiencing an ongoing issue with spam, the client has the option of changing their phone number,” Mr. Laszlo wrote. “The $25 fee will be waived if a previous client was registered to the phone number and may have solicited spam service.”

Ms. Gratton from Telus said if customers receive a message that they shouldn't receive, they can call Telus to remove the charge from their bill.