June 18, 2009
Lawmakers Question Increased Text Messaging Costs
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are questioning cell phone carriers about the increasing costs of texting. Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl is among the group asking questions, reports ABCwisn.
"From 2006 to 2008 for the four major carriers the price has increased by 100 percent from 10 to 20 cents a message," said Kohl.
Text messaging uses less bandwidth than almost any other service on a wireless network. Lawmakers want to know why the increase in use of texting has seen a corresponding increase in rates.
Several dozen class-action lawsuits have been filed against wireless carriers.
The suits allege the companies conspired to "fix prices" for text messages, which the companies vehemently deny.
The consumer mark-up on some text messages is an estimated 4,900 per cent, according to a leading Canadian computer scientist who testified before U.S. senators on Tuesday. The maximum cost of a single text message "very unlikely" exceeds 0.3 cents, reports Canada.com.
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