Costs of Text Messaging vs. Space Transmissions

This is one of the stranger assumptions made about text messaging pricing. Via the NY Times The Lede Blog.

"Nigel Bannister, a space scientist at the University of Leicester in Britain, has concluded that sending a text message costs at least four times as much as transmitting scientific data from the Hubble telescope."

Dr Nigel Bannister’s calculations were used for the Channel 4 Dispatches program “The Mobile Phone Rip-Off”.

He worked out the cost of obtaining a megabyte of data from Hubble – and compared that with the 5p cost of sending a text.

He said: “The bottom line is texting is at least 4 times more expensive than transmitting data from Hubble, and is likely to be substantially more than that.

emily | 9:44 PM | European/ZA/USA SMS pricing issues |
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