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AT&T intros new worldwide messaging add-on plan

updated 03:05 pm EDT, Fri March 19, 2010

AT&T intros $10 international messaging package


AT&T on Friday said it has introduced a new Global Messaging 50 Package to wireless subscribers that will lower the cost of sending (but not receiving) SMS, MMS and instant messages from more than 90 countries. Customers can add the package to their plans starting tomorrow, March 20th, for $10 per month. For this amount, users can send 50 messages per month internationally, including a mix of text, IMs, photos or videos.

This could translate to large savings, as its current international roaming charges are set at $0.50 per text or instant message or $1.30 per picture or video messages. If subscribers send 50 messages of any type per month under the plan, they are charged the equivalent of $0.20 per message. Any message over the limit of 50 costs $0.40. Received messages will be charged at a subscriber's regular rate, however, which is dependent on the existing plan.


By Electronista Staff

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AT&T, mobile phones

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  1. nowwhatareyoulookingat

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2009

    +1
    03/19, 03:35pm | report spam | reply

    what a deal!

    It only costs 20 cents instead of 50 to send something that costs AT&T what, a fraction of a penny? Even internationally, they might have to pay the other carrier, a couple of pennies?


  1. legacyb4

    Mac Elite

    Joined: May 2001

    +2
    03/19, 03:50pm | report spam | reply

    Or use TextPlus

    Free app which serves the purpose.


  1. Euge

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2006

    +1
    03/19, 04:01pm | report spam | reply

    Their business

    @nowwhatareyoulookingat
    I'm sick of hearing people that say it costs pennies for SMS. If you had a store that sold a widget for $5, would you charge $5 for ? How about $5.05? Didn't think so.

    I'm not supporting carriers overcharging for the service, but my point is you don't know their business.

    Would you like to track how many messages you've sent on their web site? Costs money.
    Would you like to see a summary of all your text messages in your monthly bill? Costs money.
    Would you like to call someone to dispute an SMS charge? Costs money.
    Would you like to be able to donate to Red Cross via text? Costs money.
    Would you like to vote for American Idol via text? Costs money.
    Want your carrier to support a 24/7 system that works with other carriers? Costs money.

    There is more than the cost of sending a few kb of data over a network than the few kb of data itself. Maybe in all, it comes out to a few cents a message. I agree that if that's the case and they charge 50 cents, that sucks. But my point is, you don't know that.


  1. mbanks

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2001

    +2
    03/19, 05:11pm | report spam | reply

    Figures...

    Great. The day after I get back from a 3 week international trip, this gets announced...

    My only issue is that it seems a bit pricey. That means that you'd have to be sure you were going to send more than 20 SMS in any one month to make it worth it.

    TextPlus requires data. At $20/MB for data, it's pretty tough to shut EVERYTHING else off to make sure you don't use any data.

    What I REALLY want to see from Apple/AT&T is a way to really limit how much data you use while traveling internationally. If I could somehow keep data down to, say, 1MB/week, I'd actually buy more "data" from them and their intl partners. However, that's pretty tough to do with the way things are now with the iPhone.


  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +1
    03/19, 06:13pm | report spam | reply

    Re: what a deal

    It only costs 20 cents instead of 50 to send something that costs AT&T what, a fraction of a penny? Even internationally, they might have to pay the other carrier, a couple of pennies?

    And you know their costs how? Oh, right, you read somewhere on the internet that it doesn't cost the carriers anything to do SMS or MMS or any other type of service, so it must be true!

    And Euge makes good points, but there's one more I'd like to bring out.

    Let's say you take over ATT. You find out that messaging only costs the company 1 cent for the service. Yet you see that it is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars every year from people paying 20 cents per message or, even better, $20 a month unlimited!

    Do you:
    a. Cut the price to 2 cents a message or $5 unlimited, because you want to help out your dear texters.
    b. Leave the price alone, since people seem to accept the current price.
    c. Develop plans to either reduce your costs by half
    d. Perform market research to determine what affects raising the prices would have on your bottom line.

    If you pick a, you won't be in your job long (unless you can somehow show your stockholders how cutting prices is going to help their stock value).

    The goal of any company (yes, even Apple) is to make money. You can be sure Steve would not be in his job now if the iPhone and iPods were big money losers and the company was still sitting at $15/share. It is not a public company's goal to just make amazing products. They aren't here just to make you stuff.


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