October 3, 2008
Lawyers suing wireless carriers over SMS rates
Shortly after Sen. Herb Kohl asked wireless carriers to justify rising SMS prices, lawyers began filing antitrust suits, RCR Wireless News reports via The Dallas Morning News.
"The wireless industry trade magazine uncovered five suits in just the first few days after Kohl began asking carriers why they've doubled the price of text messages over the past few years.
Text messages, when paid for individually, generally cost about 20 cents apiece these days -- even though many analysts think they cost carriers well under a penny to deliver. High profit margins aren't illegal, of course, but when all the companies in an industry hike the price of a service that's only getting cheaper to provide, people start thinking about collusion and antitrust suits.
RCR thinks the lawyers smell blood and expects them to pool their resources into a massive class action.
... Americans currently send about 75 billion text messages a month, so SMS is clearly a big revenue and profit generator for the wireless industry. Carriers generate about $28 billion a year in data revenue, which includes SMS. "
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